Java break Statement

The break statement is used to transfer flow of control out of a statement, referred to as an enclosing statement^[1]. The execution of the enclosing statement is then terminated. The break statement may take an optional label. If no label is used, then the enclosing statement is the innermost loop (for, while, or do) or switch statement that contains the break statement. If a label is used, then the enclosing statement is the statement that contains the break statement and has the specified label. More than one statement in a method may have the same label as long as a statement does not enclose another statement with the same label.

The continue statement is similar to the break statement in that it affects the execution of an enclosing statement. However, the continue statement differs from the break statement in the following important ways:

1. The continue statement is used with the for, while, and do statements, but not the switch statement.
2. The continue statement only terminates the current loop iteration, not the loop.

When a continue statement is encountered, the execution of the innermost enclosing loop (or enclosing loop with matching label) is terminated. Control returns to the loop statement to determine whether the next iteration of the loop should take place.

public class TestClass {
 public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
  String[] sa = { "a", "b", "c" };
  for (String s : sa) {
    if ("b".equals(s))
     continue;
    System.out.println(s);
    if ("b".equals(s))
     break;
    System.out.println(s + " again");
  }
 }
}

To determine the output you have to run through the loop one iteration at a time in your mind:
Iteration 1: s is "a". It is not equal to "b" so, it will print "a", and then "a again".
Iteration 2: s is "b". It is equal to "b", so the first if will execute "continue", which mean the rest of the code in the loop will not be executed (thus b and b again will not be printed), and the next iteration will start. Note that the second if is not executed at all because of the continue in the first if.
Iteration 3: s is "c", both the if conditions are not satisfied. So "c" and "c again" will be printed.

Click the Exercise link below to practice writing loops.
Two Dimensional Array Loop Search - Exercise

[1] Enclosing statement: A statement, such as a switch, if, or loop statement, that contains the statement block of the statement in question.