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Java Break & Continue

The break Statement

You’ve already seen the break statement when learning about the switch statement — it was used to jump out of the switch block. But guess what? You can also use break to jump out of a loop. When Java sees a break statement inside a loop, it immediately stops the loop — even if there are more iterations left.

Example: Stop the Loop When i Equals 4

Java

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i == 4) {
    break;
  }
  System.out.println(i);
}

Note

As soon as i becomes 4, the break statement ends the loop completely. The loop does not print numbers 4 to 9.

The continue Statement

The continue statement skips one round of the loop when a condition is true — then moves on to the next iteration. It doesn’t stop the loop entirely — it just skips that one turn.

Example: Skip the Value 4

Java

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i == 4) {
    continue;
  }
  System.out.println(i);
}

Note

When i equals 4, the continue statement tells Java to skip printing and go straight to the next number.

Good to Remember

Keyword	What it Does
break	Stops the loop completely
continue	Skips the current iteration, then continues the loop

Combining break and continue

Skip 2 and Stop at 4

Java

for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
  if (i == 2) {
    continue;  // skip this round
  }
  if (i == 4) {
    break;     // stop the loop completely
  }
  System.out.println(i);
}

0
1
3

Using break and continue in while Loops

break in a While Loop

Java

int i = 0;
while (i < 10) {
  System.out.println(i);
  i++;
  if (i == 4) {
    break;
  }
}

continue in a While Loop

Java

int i = 0;
while (i < 10) {
  if (i == 4) {
    i++;
    continue;  // skip number 4
  }
  System.out.println(i);
  i++;
}

Real-Life Example

Imagine you’re processing a list of numbers. You want to skip negative values, but stop completely if you find a zero.

Java

int[] numbers = {3, -1, 7, 0, 9};

for (int n : numbers) {
  if (n < 0) {
    continue; // skip negative numbers
  }
  if (n == 0) {
    break;    // stop the loop when zero is found
  }
  System.out.println(n);
}

3
7

Note

The program skips -1 (because it’s negative), stops completely when it finds 0, and never reaches 9 because the loop ended.

Summary

Keyword	Meaning	Stops Loop	Skips Iteration	Used In
break	End loop completely	Yes	No	for, while, do-while, switch
continue	Skip current loop turn	No	Yes	for, while, do-while