break and continue

Learn to exit a loop with break and skip with continue.

Exiting with break

To exit a loop early you use break. When break is called the loop ends immediately; the program continues with the statement after the loop. Even if the condition still holds, the loop does not run.

For example for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { if (i === 5) { break; } console.log(i); } prints 1, 2, 3, 4 and stops at 5. break is especially useful in search tasks to end the loop once a match is found; it avoids needless iterations.

Skipping with continue

To skip the rest of an iteration and move to the next you use continue. break ends the loop, continue skips only that iteration. The loop keeps running as long as the condition stays true.

For example for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) { if (i % 2 === 0) { continue; } console.log(i); } prints only odd numbers: 1, 3, 5. continue is handy when you want to skip work under certain conditions; it often appears with an if clause.

Exercise Stop at 5

Write a for loop: counter i starts at 1, condition i <= 10, step i++. In the body exit at 5 with if (i === 5) { break; }; then call console.log(i). The output must be four lines: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Show example solution

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
    if (i === 5) {
        break;
    }
    console.log(i);
}

Test yourself

Write break

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
    if (i === 3) {
        ____;
    }
    console.log(i);
}

Show answer

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
    if (i === 3) {
        break;
    }
    console.log(i);
}

What does continue do?
```
for (let i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
    if (i === 2) { continue; }
    console.log(i);
}
```
- Ends the loop
- Skips to next iteration
- Throws an error
- Restarts the loop
Show answer

Skips to next iteration — continue skips the rest of the body and goes to the next iteration.
Match each command to its job

break

Exits the loop
continue

Skips iteration
if

Tests a condition
for

Counted loop

Next lesson: Summary - Loops

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