Difference between break and continue in PHP?

Question

break ends a loop completely, continue just shortcuts the current iteration and moves on to the next iteration.

while ($foo) {   <--------------------┐
    continue;    --- goes back here --┘
    break;       ----- jumps here ----┐
}                                     |
                 <--------------------┘

This would be used like so:

while ($droid = searchDroids()) {
    if ($droid != $theDroidYoureLookingFor) {
        continue; // ..the search with the next droid
    }

    $foundDroidYoureLookingFor = true;
    break; // ..off the search
}

break exits the loop you are in, continue starts with the next cycle of the loop immediatly.

Example:

$i = 10;
while (--$i)
{
    if ($i == 8)
    {
        continue;
    }
    if ($i == 5)
    {
        break;
    }
    echo $i . "\n";
}

will output:

9
7
6

BREAK:

break ends execution of the current for, foreach, while, do-while or switch structure.

CONTINUE:

continue is used within looping structures to skip the rest of the current loop iteration and continue execution at the condition evaluation and then the beginning of the next iteration.

So depending on your need, you can reset the position currently being executed in your code to a different level of the current nesting.

Also, see here for an artical detailing Break vs Continue with a number of examples

For the Record:

Note that in PHP the switch statement is considered a looping structure for the purposes of continue.

break used to get out from the loop statement, but continue just stop script on specific condition and then continue looping statement until reach the end..

for($i=0; $i<10; $i++){
    if($i == 5){
        echo "It reach five<br>";
        continue;
    }
    echo $i . "<br>";
}

echo "<hr>";

for($i=0; $i<10; $i++){
    if($i == 5){
         echo "It reach end<br>";
         break;
    }
    echo $i . "<br>";
}

Hope it can help u;

'continue' is used within looping structures to skip the rest of the current loop iteration and continue execution at the condition evaluation and then the beginning of the next iteration.

'break' ends execution of the current for, foreach, while, do-while or switch structure.

break accepts an optional numeric argument which tells it how many nested enclosing structures are to be broken out of.

Check out the following links:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.break.php

http://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.continue.php

Hope it helps..