Loop Control statements: break and continue

Loop control statements are used to change the flow of execution from its normal sequence. When execution leaves a scope, all automatic objects that were created in that scope are destroyed. The break and continue are loop control statements.

The break statement terminates a loop without any further consideration.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

auto main() -> int
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        if (i == 4)
            break; // this will immediately exit our loop
        std::cout << i << '\n';
    }
}

0
1
2
3

The continue statement does not immediately exit the loop, but rather skips the rest of the loop body and goes to the top of the loop (including checking the condition).

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

auto main() -> int
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
    {
        if (i % 2 == 0) // evaluates to true if i is even
            continue; // this will immediately go back to the start of the loop
        /* the next line will only be reached if the above "continue" statement 
           does not execute  */
        std::cout << i << " is an odd number\n";
    }
}

1 is an odd number
3 is an odd number
5 is an odd number

Because such control flow changes are sometimes difficult for humans to easily understand, break and continue are used sparingly. More straightforward implementation are usually easier to read and understand. For example, the first for loop with the break above might be rewritten as:

for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
    std::cout << i << '\n';
}

The second example with continue might be rewritten as:

for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
{
    if (i % 2 != 0) {
        std::cout << i << " is an odd number\n";
    }
}