PHP Loop Control Structures

In PHP, we have two loop control structures.

• Break - Ends the execution of the current loop.
• Continue - Skips the next part of current loop iteration, and jumps to condition checking of the next loop iteration.

Note: They can also be used with the switch statement.

PHP Break

break; statement terminates the execution of the current loop.

<?php
/*break on 5 */
$a = 0;
while ($a < 10) {
	echo $a . '<br>';
	if ($a === 5) {
		break;
	}
	$a++;
}

An optional numeric argument can be used to specify how many loops need to be broken. (break 2; will terminate 2 nested loops)

<?php
for ($a = 0; $a < 10; $a++) {
	echo "$";
	for ($b = 0; $b < 10; $b++) {
		if ($a === 3 && $b === 5) {
			echo '<br> Breaking two loops';
			break 2;
		}
		echo $b;
	}
	echo '<br>';
}

PHP Continue

continue; skips the next part of the current loop iteration. Then, the next loop iteration will run after checking the conditions.

Like break; statement, continue; also can have a numeric argument to continue multiple loops.

<?php
$a = 0;
while ($a < 10) {
	if ($a === 5) {
		$a++;
		continue; // 5 is not printed
	}
	echo $a . '<br>';
	$a++;
}