In this article, you will learn everything that you need to know about the Continue Statement in JavaScript along with some examples.
What is Continue Statement
in JavaScript?
The Continue Statement in JavaScript is used to end processing the current iteration of the loop and go right to its next iteration.
With the use of the Continue Statement, instead of terminating out of the overall loop, it is possible to break only from the current iteration in the loop.
Continue Statement Syntax
Without using label
reference:
continue;
Using label reference:
continue labelname; (the label is optional and used rarely)
How does Continue Statement
work in JavaScript?
The Continue Statement skips one iteration. If one of the loop’s conditions is met, it immediately breaks the condition and moves on to the next iteration.
Only one loop iteration will be skipped either the continue statement is used without or with a reference label.
When we use the if condition, for loop, while loop, and do…while loop to specify certain conditions. The continue statement skips over the loop’s condition and moves on to the next iteration of the loop.
Figure 1: Working Mechanism of JavaScript Continue Statement
Flow chart of Continue
Statement
Figure 2: Flowchart of Continue Statement
Continue Statement in For
loop
In the context of for
loop, continue terminates the current iteration of the loop and the
control flow of the program skips to the next iteration.
Example No. 1
In the below example, the for loop iteration starts with 0 and terminates at 5.
When the loop iteration
reaches a value of 2, a conditional statement checks, and the iteration is
skipped to the next one because of the use of the continue statement.
Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
lang="en">
<head>
<title>Continue
Statement in For Loop</title>
</head>
<body
style="background-color: black; color: white;">
<h1>Continue
Statement in For Loop</h1>
<p
id="continue"></p>
<script>
let
output = "";
// Start for loop
for
(let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
if
(i === 2) {
continue;
//use of continue
statement
}
output
+= "The result number is: " + i + "<br>";
}
// end for loop
document.getElementById("continue").innerHTML
= output;
</script>
<p>From
above, you can see that the step where i = 2 is skipped.</p>
</body>
</html>
Screenshot
The above example states
that;
- When the
value of i is equal to 2, the continue statement terminates the second
iteration.
- The second
iteration is skipped and is not printed out.
- Now, the
value of i becomes 3, and the condition and continue statement are
executed again.
- Therefore,
4 is printed out in the next iteration.
Output
Continue Statement in While
loop
In the context of the while loop when the continue statement is used, it terminates the current iteration of the loop, and the control flow of the program moves back to the while condition.
Example No. 2
In the below example, the continue statement is used in the while loop.
The iteration starts with 0 and terminates at 5.
During the loop run, there
is a conditional statement using the operator OR (||), which checks when the
loop iteration reaches a value of 2 and 3, and the iteration is skipped to the
next one because of the use of the continue statement.
Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
lang="en">
<head>
<title>Continue
Statement in While Loop</title>
</head>
<body
style="background-color: black; color: white;">
<h1>Continue
Statement in While Loop</h1>
<p
id="continue"></p>
<script>
let
output = "";
let
i = 0;
// Start while loop
while
(i < 5) {
i++;
if
(i === 2 || i === 3)
continue;
//use
of continue statement
output
+= "The number is: " + i + "<br>";
}
// End while loop
document.getElementById("continue").innerHTML
= output;
</script>
<p>From
above, you can see that the value 2 and 3 are skipped.</p>
</body>
</html>
Screenshot
The above example states
that;
- When the
value of i is equal to 2 or 3, the continue statement terminates the
second or third iteration respectively.
- The second
and third iteration is skipped and is not printed out.
- Now, the
value of i becomes 4, and the condition and continue statement are
executed again.
- Therefore, 4 and 5 are printed out in the next two iterations.
Output
Note: The continue statement executes in the same way for the while and do…while loops.
Continue Statement inside
Nested Loop
In the context of nested
loops, the continue statement terminates the current iteration of
the inner loop.
Example No.3
In the below example, continue is used with the nested loop; it terminates the current iteration of the inner for loop.
According to the example, when the continue statement executes then it terminates the current iteration of the inner for loop and the control flow of the program moves to the next iteration of the inner for loop.
Thus, the value of j = 1 is
skipped in the output.
Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
lang="en">
<head>
<title>Continue
Statement inside Nested Loop</title>
</head>
<body style="background-color:
black; color: white;">
<h2>Continue
Statement inside Nested Loop</h2>
<p
id="continue"></p>
<script>
let
output = "";
// first for loop
for
(let i = 1; i <= 2; i++) {
// second for loop
for
(let j = 1; j <= 2; j++) {
if
(j === 1) {
continue;
//use
of continue statement
}
output
+= "Value of: " + `i = ${i}, j = ${j}` + "<br>";
document.getElementById("continue").innerHTML
= output;
}
}
</script>
<p>From
above, you can see that the value of j = 1 is skipped.</p>
</body>
</html>
Screenshot
The above example states
that;
- When the
value of j in the inner for loop is equal to 1, the continue statement
executes and it skips the current iteration in the inner for loop.
- The first
iteration is skipped and is not printed out.
- Now, the
control flow of the program moves to the next iteration and the continue
statement is executed again.
- The second
iteration is printed out in the next iteration.
- Hence, the
value of j equal to 1 is skipped and never printed out.
Output
Labeled Continue Statement in JavaScript
When the label is used with the continue statement then it allows you to terminate a loop iteration.
In the context of a nested loop statement, the label helps to jump out from an inner loop to an outer loop.
Generally, a continue
statement with the label in it is used hardly as this leads to the program's
complexity to read and understand.
Example No.4
In the below example, the label is being used with continue.
Nested for loop is used
where the inner loop is labeled as innerlabel and outer loop is labeled
as outerlabel.
Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body style="background-color:
black; color: white;">
<h2>
Continue statement with label </h2>
<p
id="continue"></p>
<script>
let
output = "";
outerlabel:
//
This for loop is labeled as "outerlabel"
for
(let i = 1; i <= 2; i++) {
innerlabel:
//
This for loop is labeled as "innerlabel"
for
(let j = 1; j <= 2; j++) {
if
(j === 1) {
continue
innerlabel; //use of continue statement with label
}
output
+= "<br>" + "i = " + i + ", j = ";
document.getElementById("continue").innerHTML
= output += j + " ";
}
}
</script>
<p>From
above, you can see that the value of j = 1 is skipped.</p>
</body>
</html>
Screenshot
Output
What is the use of Continue
Statement in JavaScript?
The use of the Continue Statement is to skip the current iteration and move to the next iteration in a loop.
Continue statement can be beneficial when we know that there is not any point in continuing the execution within the current loop and we desire to preserve processor cycles or prevent an error from occurring by moving right along to the next iteration of the loop.
It is used only inside loops like for loop, while loop, and do-while loop.
If we use the continue statement in the program, then the flow of the program immediately ends the current scenario and starts a new one. When we apply the continue statement in our program, then the control remains in the same loop.
The Continue Statement with the absence or presence of label reference can only be used to jump out of one loop iteration.
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