break statement
From cppreference.com
Causes the enclosing for, while or do-while loop or switch statement to terminate.
Used when it is otherwise awkward to terminate the loop using the condition expression and conditional statements.
Syntax
attr-spec-seq (optional) break ;
|
|||||||||
| attr-spec-seq | - | (C23) optional list of attributes, applied to the break statement
|
Appears only within the statement of a loop body (while, do-while, for) or within the statement of a switch.
Explanation
After this statement the control is transferred to the statement or declaration immediately following the enclosing loop or switch, as if by goto.
Keywords
Notes
A break statement cannot be used to break out of multiple nested loops. The goto statement may be used for this purpose.
Example
Run this code
#include <stdio.h> int main(void) { int i = 2; switch (i) { case 1: printf("1"); case 2: printf("2"); // i==2, so execution starts at this case label case 3: printf("3"); case 4: case 5: printf("45"); break; // execution of subsequent cases is terminated case 6: printf("6"); } printf("\n"); // Compare outputs from these two nested for loops. for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++) for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++) printf("%d%d ", j,k); printf("\n"); for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++) { for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++) // only this loop is exited by break { if (k == 2) break; printf("%d%d ", j,k); } } }
Possible output:
2345 00 01 02 03 04 10 11 12 13 14 00 01 10 11
References
- C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
- 6.8.6.3 The break statement (p: 111)
- C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
- 6.8.6.3 The break statement (p: 153)
- C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
- 6.8.6.3 The break statement (p: 138)
- C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
- 3.6.6.3 The break statement
See also
[[fallthrough]](C23)
|
indicates that the fall through from the previous case label is intentional and should not be diagnosed by a compiler that warns on fall-through (attribute specifier) |