PHP - Break after return?

Question

do I need to use break here or will it stop looping and just return once?

for($i = 0; $i < 5; $i ++) {     if($var[$i] === '') return false;     // break; } 

Thank you!

Answer 1

It will run just once, stop looping, and exit from the function/method.

It could be argued though that this is bad style. It is very easy to overlook that return later, which is bad for debugging and maintenance.

Using break might be cleaner:

for($i = 0; $i < 5; $i ++) {     if($var[$i] === '')      { set_some_condition;         break;      } }  if (some_condition)  return; 

Answer 2

Update:

PHP 7 requires a return. A break; is not needed because the loop ends on return.

A break; is usually used in a switch or loop whenever you have found your needed item.

Example:

$items = ['a' , 'b' , 'c'];   foreach($items as $item)  {     if($item == 'a')     {        return true; // the foreach will stop once 'a' is found and returns true.     }        return false; // if 'a' is not found, the foreach will return false. } 

or:

$items = ['a' , 'b' , 'c'];       foreach($items as $item) {     return $item == 'a'; // if 'a' is found, true is returned. Otherwise false. }