Why it is a bad practice to use break/continue labels in OOP (e.g. Java, C#)? [closed]

Question

I was told that using break and continue labels in an OOP language is not OOP programming style. Can you explain in detail why and what is the problem?

The trick was with this label word. I meant labeled break/continue.

class BreakWithLabelDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int[][] arrayOfInts = {
            { 32, 87, 3, 589 },
            { 12, 1076, 2000, 8 },
            { 622, 127, 77, 955 }
        };
        int searchfor = 12;

        int i;
        int j = 0;
        boolean foundIt = false;

    search:
        for (i = 0; i < arrayOfInts.length; i++) {
            for (j = 0; j < arrayOfInts[i].length;
                 j++) {
                if (arrayOfInts[i][j] == searchfor) {
                    foundIt = true;
                    break search;
                }
            }
        }

        if (foundIt) {
            System.out.println("Found " + searchfor +
                               " at " + i + ", " + j);
        } else {
            System.out.println(searchfor +
                               " not in the array");
        }
    }
}

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/branch.html

Answer 1

The advice not to use break/continue is probably not really related to OOP. It is based on the fact that these statements are similar to the infamous GOTO, which can make code completely unreadable. However, dogmas are bad counsels. The main paradigm should be readability of the code. Jumping out of a loop in the first line using break or continue can be much clearer than putting the whole rest into an if condition.

Answer 2

break and continue are not functional style programming. There is nothing about OOP which suggestsbreak, continue or even goto within a method is a bad idea.

IMHO using break and continue are discouraged in OOP languages as they can lead to complexity and confusion. As Labels are used rarely they can confuse even further. I would say you should still use them when you feel its the simplest solution to the problem.

// confusing use of LABEL
http://www.google.com/
do {
    if (condition) continue http;
} while(condition2)

another confusing use

GOTO: {
    // code
    if (condition)
         break GOTO; // without a loop
    // code
}

Good use of a label

OUTER: 
for(outer loop) {
   for(inner loop)
      if (condition)
         continue or break OUTER;
}

Odd use of a label

FOUND: {
   for(loop)
      if(found)
          break FOUND;

   // not found
   handle not found
}