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Difference between break and continue in PHP

Just like other programming languages, PHP also have two keywords break and continue to control the loop. These statements are known as jumping statement or flow of transfer in the program. In this section, we will discuss the differences between break and continue in PHP.

Break

The break statement is used inside the loop (for, foreach, while and do-while) and switch case statement. As the break statement encountered inside a loop, it immediately terminated the loop statement and transferred the control to the next statement, followed by a loop to resume the execution. It is also used in the nested loop statement, where it breaks the inner loop first and then proceed to break the outer loop. It is also used in the switch case statement to terminate a particular case's execution in the program.

Flow Diagram

In the above flow diagram, a break statement is placed inside the loop with a condition. If the condition defined in the loop is true, a break statement is immediately executed to break the execution of the loop and to move the control to the next statement followed by the loop.

Continue

The continue statement is used in the middle of for loop, while loop, do-while loop, and the foreach loop. As the continue statement is encountered in a loop, it skips the current iteration of the loop and transfers the control to the beginning of the loop for further execution of the loop. For example, in some situations where we want to skip the program's current statement and then starts the next statement, we use the continue statement.

Flow Diagram

In the above diagram, a continue statement is used to skip a particular iteration of the loop. It is usually used with a condition inside a loop. If the defined condition is true, the continue statement is executed to skip the iteration. After that, it transfers the control to the beginning of the loop for further execution inside the loop.

Let's understand the program of break statement using for loop in PHP.

     <?php  
// defines the for loop 
for ($a = 0; $a < 10; $a++) {
  if ($a == 7) {
    break; /* Break the loop when condition is true. */
  }
  echo "Number: $a <br>";
}
echo " Terminate the loop at $a number";
?>

    

Output:

As we can see in the above example, for loop is continuously executed the program. When the condition of if statement i==7, the break statement encountered inside the loop and terminates the loop. After that, transfer the control to the next statement followed by for loop to execute the statement.

Let's understand the program of continue statement using for loop in PHP.

     <?php  
// defines the for loop 
for ($a = 0; $a < 7; $a++) {
  if ($a == 5) {
  echo " Skipped number is $a <br>"; // prints the skipped number.
    continue; /* It skips the defined statement if the condition is true. */

  }
  echo "Number is: $a <br>";
}
?>

    

Output:

As we can see in the above example, for loop start the execution of the loop from 1 to 10. When the statement of if statement i==5, a continue statement enters the loop and skips the execution of current statement. After that, transfer the control to the beginning of the loop for further execution of the loop statement.

Difference between the break and continue statement in PHP

Parameters	Break	Continue
Definition	It is a break statement or break keyword used to terminate and transfer the control to the next statement when encountered inside a loop or switch case statement.	It is a statement or keyword used to skip the execution of a particular statement inside the loops.
Syntax	if (condition) { break; }	if (condition) { continue; }
Condition-based on if statement.	If the defined condition is true, the break statement is executed in the loop or switch.	If the defined condition is true, the continue statement is executed in the loop or switch.
Transfer control	A control can only be transferred to the next statement followed by a loop, if the break encountered within a loop.	Similarly, it transfers the control to the beginning of the loop when a continue statement is placed inside a loop.
Use in loops and switch-case statements	A break statement is used in various loops like for, while, do while, foreach loop and the switch case statement. Whereas, continue statement is also used in various loops like for, while, do-while and foreach loop.	A continue statement can also be used inside the switch case.