Any way to break if statement in PHP?

Question

Is there any command in PHP to stop executing the current or parent if statement, same as break or break(1) for switch/loop. For example

$arr=array('a','b');
foreach($arr as $val)
{
  break;
  echo "test";
}

echo "finish";

in the above code PHP will not do echo "test"; and will go to echo "finish";

I need this for if

$a="test";
if("test"==$a)
{
  break;
  echo "yes"; // I don't want this line or lines after to be executed, without using another if
}
echo "finish";

I want to break the if statement above and stop executing echo "yes"; or such codes which are no longer necessary to be executed, there may be or may not be an additional condition, is there way to do this?

Update: Just 2 years after posting this question, I grew up, I learnt how code can be written in small chunks, why nested if's can be a code smell and how to avoid such problems in the first place by writing manageable, small functions.

Answer 1

Sometimes, when developing these "fancy" things are required. If we can break an if, a lot of nested ifs won't be necessary, making the code much more clean and aesthetic.

This sample code illustrates that in certain situations a breaked if can be much more suitable than a lot of ugly nested ifs.

Ugly code

if(process_x()) {

    /* do a lot of other things */

    if(process_y()) {

         /* do a lot of other things */

         if(process_z()) {

              /* do a lot of other things */
              /* SUCCESS */

         }
         else {

              clean_all_processes();

         }

    }
    else {

         clean_all_processes();

    }

}
else {

    clean_all_processes();

}

Good looking code

do {
  
  if( !process_x() )
    { clean_all_processes();  break; }
  
  /* do a lot of other things */
  
  if( !process_y() )
    { clean_all_processes();  break; }
  
  /* do a lot of other things */
  
  if( !process_z() )
    { clean_all_processes();  break; }
  
  /* do a lot of other things */
  /* SUCCESS */
  
} while (0);

As @NiematojakTomasz says, the use of goto is an alternative, the bad thing about this is you always need to define the label (point target).

Answer 2

Encapsulate your code in a function. You can stop executing a function with return at any time.

Answer 3

proper way to do this :

try{
    if( !process_x() ){
        throw new Exception('process_x failed');
    }

    /* do a lot of other things */

    if( !process_y() ){
        throw new Exception('process_y failed');
    }

    /* do a lot of other things */

    if( !process_z() ){
        throw new Exception('process_z failed');
    }

    /* do a lot of other things */
    /* SUCCESS */
}catch(Exception $ex){
    clean_all_processes();
}

After reading some of the comments, I realized that exception handling doesn't always makes sense for normal flow control. For normal control flow it is better to use "If else":

try{
  if( process_x() && process_y() && process_z() ) {
    // all processes successful
    // do something
  } else {
    //one of the processes failed
    clean_all_processes();
  }
}catch(Exception ex){
  // one of the processes raised an exception
  clean_all_processes();
}

You can also save the process return values in variables and then check in the failure/exception blocks which process has failed.

Answer 4

Because you can break out of a do/while loop, let us "do" one round. With a while(false) at the end, the condition is never true and will not repeat, again.

do
{
    $subjectText = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'subject'));
    if(!$subjectText)
    {
        $smallInfo = 'Please give a subject.';
        break;
    }

    $messageText = trim(filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'message'));
    if(!$messageText)
    {
        $smallInfo = 'Please supply a message.';
        break;
    }
} while(false);

Answer 5

goto:

The goto operator can be used to jump to another section in the program. The target point is specified by a label followed by a colon, and the instruction is given as goto followed by the desired target label. This is not a full unrestricted goto. The target label must be within the same file and context, meaning that you cannot jump out of a function or method, nor can you jump into one. You also cannot jump into any sort of loop or switch structure. You may jump out of these, and a common use is to use a goto in place of a multi-level break...