Break and Continue in Javascript

Javascript does not have goto - thankfully. But it has continue and break that more or less perform the same function.

If for any reason you want to jump out of a loop, here’s how you can do that -

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for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  console.log("i is", i);
  if (i > 1) break;
}

But, what if you want to jump to a particular statement? That’s where break can help.

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outerloop: for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  console.log("i is", i);
  innerloop: for (let j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
    console.log("j is", j);
    if (j > 1) break outerloop;
  }
}

/* output
i is 0
j is 0
j is 1
j is 2
*/

Similar to break, you can use continue to continue loop.

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for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  console.log("i is", i);
  if (i % 2 == 0) continue;
  // no op for even numbers
}

And, when used with labels..

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outerloop: for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  console.log("i is", i);
  innerloop: for (let j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
    console.log("j is", j);
    if (j > 1) continue innerloop;
  }
}

Final words

Just use conditional statements to execute logic as normal. There is no place for labels in this day and age.

Do not use continue - ever
Use break to break out of the inner loop, but never with labels

Break and Continue in Javascript

Final words

See Also