JAVA Programming : Break, Continue And Return

JAVA Break, Continue And Return

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Java has three type of branching control keywords: break, continue and return. These keywords are used to change the normal flow of execution of program.

Break keyword :

The break keyword is used to stop the execution of the loops. In many situations we need to get out of the loop before the loop execution is complete. Whenever a break keyword is encountered inside a loop the execution gets out of loop and start executing the next line of code after the loop. The break statement is of two types: labeled and unlabeled.

Unlabeled break statement:

Unlabeled break statement is used to get out of a single loop. If unlabeled break is used inside the nested loops it will exit only from the loop in which break is used. Lets see the example below:

public class UnlabeledBreak {   public static void main(String[] args) {     int i = 1;     while (i < 10) {       if (i == 5) {         break;       }       System.out.println("i = " + i);       i++;     }   } }

Output of Program:

Labeled Break Statement: 

Labeled breaks statement is used when we need to break the nested loops. Lets understand the difference between Labeled and Unlabeled break statement with an example.
In this example we need to traverse a 2D array and print the elements of array until a particular element is found. To do this we have to use nested loops. Now to break and get out of the nested loops we need to use labeled break.

public class LabeledBreak {   public static void main(String[] args) {     int[][] a = {{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}};     OuterLoop:     for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {       for (int j = 0; j < a[0].length; j++) {         System.out.println(a[i][j]);         if(a[i][j]==6){           break OuterLoop;         }       }     }     System.out.println("Program Ends");   } }

Output of Program:-

Continue Keyword:- Continue statement statement is used to skip a single iteration of a loop. Whenever a continue keyword is encountered inside a loop, the current iteration of loop ends just like a normal end of any iteration without executing the statement written after the continue statement inside the loop. Just like break statement continue statement is also of two types: labeled and unlabeled.

Unlabeled Continue Statement:

public class UnlabeledContinue {   public static void main(String[] args) {     int[] a = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15};     System.out.println("Numbers divisible by 3 or 5");       for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {       if(a[i]%3!=0 && a[i]%5!=0){         continue;       }       System.out.println(a[i]);     }   } }

Output of Program:

Labeled Continue Statement:

public class ContinueLabel {   public static void main(String args[]) {     outer:      for (int i = 1; i < 10; i++) {       for (int j = 1; j < 10; j++) {         if (j > i) {           System.out.println();           continue outer;         }         System.out.print((i)+" ");       }     }     System.out.println();   } }

Output of Program:-

Return Keyword:- Return statement is a bit different form break and continue as break and continue changes the normal control flow of loops but return statement works on the control flow of the method. Return statement stops execution of the method and transfer the control back to the caller of the method. The return statement can be used in two ways,  return statement that returns a value and another that does not return a value. Return statement must return the same type of value as defined in the declaration of method. If the method is defined as void than return statement will not return any value.

public class ReturnStatement {   public static void main(String[] args) {     ReturnStatement rs = new ReturnStatement();     System.out.println("Largest Number is: " + rs.largestNumber(5, 10, 15));   }   public int largestNumber(int num1, int num2, int num3) {     int largest = 0;     if ((num1 > num2) && (num1 > num3)){       largest = num1;     }     else if ((num2 > num3) && (num2 > num1)){       largest = num2;     }     else{       largest = num3;     }     return largest;   } }

The use of return statement will be more clear in upcoming tutorials and we will be using it more and more now.