break and continue

Syntax

break;
continue;

Examples

for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i === 5) {
    break; // stop the loop entirely
  }
  console.log(i);
}
// 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  if (i % 2 === 0) {
    continue; // skip even numbers
  }
  console.log(i);
}
// 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

outer: for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
  for (let j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
    if (j === 1) {
      break outer; // exits the OUTER loop, not just the inner one
    }
    console.log(i, j);
  }
}
// 0 0

Best practices

• Use break to exit a loop as soon as further iteration is pointless, like finding a match
• Use continue to skip irrelevant iterations while keeping the loop running
• Reach for labeled break/continue sparingly - they can make nested loop logic harder to follow
• Consider whether array methods like find() or some() might express the same intent more clearly than a manual loop with break

At a glance

Purpose

Application logic and interaction

File extension

.js · .mjs

Runs in

Browsers and JavaScript runtimes

Usually used with

HTML, CSS and Web APIs

Specifications & further reading

• ECMAScript specification

Related JavaScript documentation