break and continue Statement in PHP

This article is created to cover the two important statements or keywords in PHP, that are:

1. break
2. continue

PHP break Statement

The PHP break keyword or statement, is used when we need to exit from the current loop or switch structure. For example:

<?php
   for($i=1; $i<10; $i++)
   {
      if($i>5)
         break;
      
      echo $i;
      echo "<BR>";
   }
?>

The snapshot given below shows the output produced by this PHP example on break statement:

In above example, when the value of $i becomes greater than 5, that is when the value of $i becomes 6, then the condition $i>5 or 6>5 evaluates to be true, therefore, the program flow goes inside the if block and the break; statement gets executed, that skips the remaining execution of the current for loop. Therefore, we only get the output from 1 to 5.

The break statement skips the execution of remaining statement(s) (if any) along with all the remaining iterations of the current loop.

The break statement can also be used to stop the execution of an infinite loop (the loop whose condition always evaluates to be true). For example:

<?php
   $num = 10;
   while(true)
   {
      echo $num, "<BR>";
      
      if($num==12)
         break;
      
      $num++;
      echo $num, "<BR>";
   }
?>

The output of this PHP example should be:

See the condition of the loop, it is true, that obviously evaluates to be true for ever. Therefore, using the break statement, the execution of this loop ends.

The dry run of above example goes like:

• The value 10 initialized to the variable $num using the first statement
• Now the execution of the while loop started
• Since the condition of the loop is true, therefore, the loop goes for its infinite execution
• At first iteration, using the echo, the value of $num gets printed along with a line break using BR tag
• Since the condition $num==12 or 10==12 evaluates to be false, therefore program flow will not go inside the if block to execute the break statement
• The value of $num gets incremented by 1. Now $num=11
• The value of $num, again gets printed along with a line break
• Now the second iteration of the loop starts
• This process continues, until the value of $num becomes 12
• When the value of $num becomes 12, then the condition $num==12 (of if) evaluates to be true, and the break; statement gets executed, that forces the while loop to stop its execution

PHP continue Statement

The PHP continue statement or keyword is used, when we need to skip the execution of remaining statement(s) for the current iteration of the current loop, and continue for the next iteration of the current loop. For example:

<?php
   for($i=1; $i<10; $i++)
   {
      if($i==5)
         continue;
      
      echo $i;
      echo "<BR>";
   }
?>

The output of above PHP example on continue statement, is:

In above example, when the value of $i becomes 5, then the condition $i==5 evaluates to be true. Therefore the continue; statement gets executed, that forces to jump and continue the execution of next iteration of the current loop. That is, the two echo statement gets skipped for that iteration.

Difference Between break and continue in PHP

The break is used to skip all the remaining execution and iteration of the current loop. Whereas the continue is used to skip the execution of the remaining statement(s) of the current iteration of the current loop. For example:

<?php
   echo "<h2>Using the break Statement</h2>";
   for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
   {
      if($i==3)
         break;
      echo $i, "<BR>";
   }
   
   echo "<h2>Using the continue Statement</h2>";
   for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
   {
      if($i==3)
         continue;
      echo $i, "<BR>";
   }
?>

The output of above PHP example, is:

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