break statement

Causes the enclosing for , while or do-while loop or switch statement to terminate.

Used when it is otherwise awkward to terminate the loop using the condition expression and conditional statements.

Syntax

Appears only within the statement of a loop body ( while , do-while , for ) or within the statement of a switch .

Explanation

After this statement the control is transferred to the statement or declaration immediately following the enclosing loop or switch, as if by goto .

Keywords

break

Notes

A break statement cannot be used to break out of multiple nested loops. The goto statement may be used for this purpose.

Example

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
    int i = 2;
    switch (i)
    {
        case 1: printf("1");
        case 2: printf("2");   // i==2, so execution starts at this case label
        case 3: printf("3");
        case 4:
        case 5: printf("45");
                break;         // execution of subsequent cases is terminated
        case 6: printf("6");
    }
    printf("\n");
    // Compare outputs from these two nested for loops.
    for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
        for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++)
            printf("%d%d ", j,k);
    printf("\n");
    for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
    {
        for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++) // only this loop is exited by break
        {
            if (k == 2)
                break;
            printf("%d%d ", j,k);
        }
    }
}

2345
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00 01 10 11

References

See also