Break and Continue

The break and continue statements give you more control over loop execution.

break — Exit the Loop

break immediately stops the loop and moves on to the code after it:

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
    if (i === 5) {
        break;  // Stop at 5
    }
    console.log(i);
}
// Output: 1, 2, 3, 4

continue — Skip to Next Iteration

continue skips the rest of the current iteration and moves to the next one:

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
    if (i % 2 === 0) {
        continue;  // Skip even numbers
    }
    console.log(i);
}
// Output: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

Break in While Loops

let input;
let count = 0;

while (true) {
    count++;
    if (count > 100) {
        console.log("Safety limit reached!");
        break;
    }
}
console.log("Loop ended after", count, "iterations");

Practical Examples

// Find the first number divisible by 7 and 3
for (let i = 1; i <= 100; i++) {
    if (i % 7 === 0 && i % 3 === 0) {
        console.log("Found:", i);  // 21
        break;
    }
}

// Process items, skip invalid ones
let items = [10, -5, 20, 0, 15, -3, 25];

for (let item of items) {
    if (item <= 0) {
        continue;  // Skip negative and zero values
    }
    console.log("Processing:", item);
}
// Processing: 10, 20, 15, 25