Impara Break and Continue in C Loops

Definition

Loop control statements like break and continue change the normal flow of loop execution. They help make code more efficient by allowing early exits or skipping unnecessary steps, but overusing them can make code harder to read.

When working with loops in C, you often need to control how and when the loop executes or terminates. Two important statements for this purpose are break and continue.

The break statement is used to immediately exit a loop, while the continue statement skips the current iteration and proceeds to the next one. These keywords are especially useful in situations where you want to halt the loop early or skip specific values based on conditions.

main.c


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#include <stdio.h>

void searchValue(int arr[], int size, int target) {
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
        if (arr[i] == target) {
            printf("Found %d at index %d\n", target, i);
            break; // Exit loop immediately after finding the target
        }
    }
}

int main() {
    int numbers[] = {3, 5, 8, 2, 9, 4};
    int size = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(numbers[0]);

    searchValue(numbers, size, 8);

    return 0;
}

Typical use cases for break:

Exiting a loop when a target value is found;
Stopping a search once a condition is met.

main.c


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#include <stdio.h>

void printEvenNumbers(int arr[], int size) {
    printf("Even numbers: ");
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
        if (arr[i] % 2 != 0)
            continue; // Skip odd numbers
        
        printf("%d ", arr[i]);
    }
    printf("\n");
}

int main() {
    int numbers[] = {3, 5, 8, 2, 9, 4};
    int size = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(numbers[0]);

    printEvenNumbers(numbers, size);

    return 0;
}

Typical use cases for continue:

Skipping over certain elements in a collection;
Ignoring specific cases without leaving the loop entirely.

Using break and continue can greatly affect the flow of your loops. The break statement ends the loop immediately, so any code after the break inside the loop does not execute. This is ideal when you are searching for something and want to stop as soon as you find it.

In contrast, continue only skips the current iteration, so the loop keeps running for the remaining elements. This is useful when you want to ignore certain cases but still process the rest. Choose break when you want to stop looping altogether, and continue when you want to skip just one pass and keep going.

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Sezione 1. Capitolo 4

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Definition

When working with loops in C, you often need to control how and when the loop executes or terminates. Two important statements for this purpose are break and continue.

main.c


              12345678910111213141516171819
            
#include <stdio.h>

void searchValue(int arr[], int size, int target) {
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
        if (arr[i] == target) {
            printf("Found %d at index %d\n", target, i);
            break; // Exit loop immediately after finding the target
        }
    }
}

int main() {
    int numbers[] = {3, 5, 8, 2, 9, 4};
    int size = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(numbers[0]);

    searchValue(numbers, size, 8);

    return 0;
}

Typical use cases for break:

Exiting a loop when a target value is found;
Stopping a search once a condition is met.

main.c


              123456789101112131415161718192021
            
#include <stdio.h>

void printEvenNumbers(int arr[], int size) {
    printf("Even numbers: ");
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
        if (arr[i] % 2 != 0)
            continue; // Skip odd numbers
        
        printf("%d ", arr[i]);
    }
    printf("\n");
}

int main() {
    int numbers[] = {3, 5, 8, 2, 9, 4};
    int size = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(numbers[0]);

    printEvenNumbers(numbers, size);

    return 0;
}

Typical use cases for continue:

Skipping over certain elements in a collection;
Ignoring specific cases without leaving the loop entirely.

Tutto è chiaro?

Grazie per i tuoi commenti!

Sezione 1. Capitolo 4