Java Tutorial - Java Break

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When a break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop is terminated and program control resumes at the next statement following the loop.

Syntax for break statement

or

Here is a simple example:

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
      if (i == 10)
        break; // terminate loop if i is 10
      System.out.println("i: " + i);
    }/*w ww  . j  ava 2  s  .c om*/
    System.out.println("Loop complete.");
  }
}

This program generates the following output:

Example

The break statement can be used with while loop as well. For example, here is the preceding program coded by use of a while loop.

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    int i = 0;//from  w  ww  . j  a  v a  2  s .  co  m
    while (i < 100) {
      if (i == 10)
        break; // terminate loop if i is 10
      System.out.println("i: " + i);
      i++;
    }
    System.out.println("Loop complete.");
  }
}

The output:

Example 2

The break statement is useful to exit an infinite loop. In the following while loop the true value is hard coded in, therefore the while loop is an infinite loop. Then it uses an if statement combined with the break statement to exit the whole loop when i is 10.

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    int i = 0;/*from  w ww.  j  av  a2s. c o m*/
    while (true) {
      if (i == 10){
        break; // terminate loop if i is 10
      }
      System.out.println("i: " + i);
      i++;
    }
    System.out.println("Loop complete.");
  }
}

The output:

Example 3

When used inside a set of nested loops, the break statement will only break out of the inner-most loop. For example:

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
      System.out.print("Pass " + i + ": ");
      for (int j = 0; j < 100; j++) {
        if (j == 10)
          break; // terminate loop if j is 10
        System.out.print(j + " ");
      }//  w  ww .j  av a  2  s.co  m
      System.out.println();
    }
    System.out.println("Loops complete.");
  }
}

This program generates the following output:

Example 4

The break that terminates a switch statement affects only that switch statement and not any enclosing loops.

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
      switch (i) {
        case 1://from w  ww.j  a  v a2 s  .  co m
          System.out.println("i is one.");
          for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++) {
            System.out.println("j is " + j);
          }
          break;
        case 2:
          System.out.println("i is two.");
          break;

        default:
          System.out.println("i is greater than 3.");
      }
  }
}

The output:

From the result we can see that the break statement only exit the switch statement.

Example 5

We can specify a label for break statement and let the code logic exit to that point. The following code uses the label to make break statement exit two layers of the nested for loop.

 
public class Main {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    outer: for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
      for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
        if (j + 1 < i) {
          System.out.println();/* w ww  . j a  v  a  2  s .co  m*/
          continue outer;
        }
        System.out.print(" " + (i * j));
      }
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
}

The output:

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