What’s the Difference Between break and continue in Java?

In loops, sometimes you want to stop everything or skip just one step. That’s where break and continue come in.

Let’s break it down 👇

🛑 break

• Completely exits the loop.

• Often used when a certain condition is met and you don’t want to keep looping.

Example:

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {

    if (i == 5) {

        break;  // Loop ends here

    }

    System.out.print(i + " ");

}

// Output: 1 2 3 4

⏭️ continue

• Skips just the current step, but keeps looping.

• Useful when you want to skip a specific case.

Example:

for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {

    if (i == 3) {

        continue;  // Skip 3, but keep looping

    }

    System.out.print(i + " ");

}

// Output: 1 2 4 5

Key Difference

Keyword	What it does
break	Stops the entire loop
continue	Skips current step, goes to next