C Break and Continue

The break Statement

The break statement immediately ends the loop it is inside, even if the loop condition is still true. The program then continues with the code after the loop. This is handy when you have found what you were looking for and no longer need to keep looping.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    if (i == 4) {
      break;
    }
    printf("i is %d\n", i);
  }
  return 0;
}

The loop would normally run until i reaches 10, but when i equals 4 the break statement stops it. So this prints only 0, 1, 2, and 3.

The continue Statement

The continue statement skips the rest of the current pass and jumps straight to the next one. Unlike break, it does not end the loop; it just moves on early.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
    if (i == 3) {
      continue;
    }
    printf("i is %d\n", i);
  }
  return 0;
}

When i equals 3, continue skips the printf and goes to the next pass. So the output shows 0, 1, 2, 4, and 5, with 3 missing.