C Programming break and continue Statement

There are two statements built in C programming, break; and continue; to alter the normal flow of a program. Loops perform a set of repetitive task until text expression becomes false but it is sometimes desirable to skip some statement/s inside loop or terminate the loop immediately without checking the test expression. In such cases, break and continue statements are used. The break; statement is also used in switch statement to exit switch statement.

break Statement

In C programming, break is used in terminating the loop immediately after it is encountered. The break statement is used with conditional if statement.

Syntax of break statement

break;

The break statement can be used in terminating all three loops for, while and do...while loops.

The figure below explains the working of break statement in all three type of loops.

Example of break statement

Write a C program to find average of maximum of n positive numbers entered by user. But, if the input is negative, display the average(excluding the average of negative input) and end the program.

/* C program to demonstrate the working of break statement by terminating a loop, if user inputs negative number*/
# include <stdio.h>
int main(){
   float num,average,sum;
   int i,n;
   printf("Maximum no. of inputs\n");
   scanf("%d",&n);
   for(i=1;i<=n;++i){
       printf("Enter n%d: ",i);
       scanf("%f",&num);
       if(num<0.0)
       break;                     //for loop breaks if num<0.0
       sum=sum+num;
}
  average=sum/(i-1);       
  printf("Average=%.2f",average);
  return 0;
}

Output

Maximum no. of inputs
4
Enter n1: 1.5
Enter n2: 12.5
Enter n3: 7.2
Enter n4: -1
Average=7.07

In this program, when the user inputs number less than zero, the loop is terminated using break statement with executing the statement below it i.e., without executing sum=sum+num.
In C, break statements are also used in switch...case statement. You will study it in C switch...case statement chapter.

continue Statement

It is sometimes desirable to skip some statements inside the loop. In such cases, continue statements are used.

Syntax of continue Statement

continue;

Just like break, continue is also used with conditional if statement.

For better understanding of how continue statements works in C programming. Analyze the figure below which bypasses some code/s inside loops using continue statement.

Example of continue statement

Write a C program to find the product of 4 integers entered by a user. If user enters 0 skip it.

//program to demonstrate the working of continue statement in C programming 
# include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    int i,num,product;
    for(i=1,product=1;i<=4;++i){
        printf("Enter num%d:",i);
        scanf("%d",&num);
        if(num==0)
            continue;  / *In this program, when num equals to zero, it skips the statement product*=num and continue the loop. */
        product*=num;
}
    printf("product=%d",product);
return 0;
}

Output

Enter num1:3
Enter num2:0
Enter num3:-5
Enter num4:2
product=-30