break Statement

Terminates the current loop, or if in conjunction with a label, terminates the associated statement.

break [label];

Arguments

• label
  Optional. Specifies the label of the statement you are breaking from.

Remarks

You typically use the break statement in switch statements and while, for, for...in, or do...while loops. You most commonly use the label argument in switch statements, but it can be used in any statement, whether simple or compound.

Executing the break statement causes the program flow to exit the current loop or statement. Program flow resumes with the next statement immediately following the current loop or statement.

Example 1

In this example, the counter is set up to count from 1 to 99; however, the break statement terminates the loop after 14 counts.

var s = "";
for (var i = 1; i < 100; i+)
    {
    if (i == 15)
        {
        break;
        }
    s += i + " ";
    }

Example 2

In the following code, the break statement refers to the for loop that is preceded by the Inner: statement. When j is equal to 24, the break statement causes the program flow to exit that loop. The numbers 21 through 23 print on each line.

var s = "";

Outer:
for (var i = 1; i <= 10; i+)
    {
    s += "\n";
    s += "i: " + i;

    s += " j: ";

Inner:
    for (var j = 21; j <= 30; j+)
        {
        if (j == 24)
             {
             break Inner;
             }
        s += j + " ";
        }
    }

Requirements

Version 1

See Also

Reference

continue Statement

do...while Statement

for Statement

for...in Statement

Labeled Statement

switch Statement

while Statement

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2009	Modified examples.	Content bug fix.
March 2009	Modified examples.	Information enhancement.