JavaScript break & continue

Two keywords let you alter the flow inside any loop:

• break — exit the loop immediately.
• continue — skip the rest of THIS iteration; go to the next.

Both work in for, for..of, for..in, while, and do..while.

break — Exit Early

const numbers = [3, 7, 12, 4, 9, 15, 8];

for (const n of numbers) {
  if (n > 10) {
    console.log(`First over 10: ${n}`);
    break;
  }
}
// "First over 10: 12"

Note: for “find first match”, numbers.find((n) => n > 10) is even cleaner. Use break when the logic is more complex or when you need side effects.

continue — Skip This One

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
  if (i % 2 !== 0) continue;  // skip odd
  console.log(i);
}
// 2, 4, 6, 8, 10

continue is often equivalent to wrapping the rest of the body in an if. Pick whichever reads better — many prefer the early-exit style of continue.

They Don’t Work In forEach

forEach calls a function for each item. break and continue are loop control, so they have nothing to break out of inside forEach.

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

// This would throw a SyntaxError:
// numbers.forEach((n) => { if (n > 3) break; console.log(n); });

// Use for..of instead:
for (const n of numbers) {
  if (n > 3) break;
  console.log(n);
}
// 1, 2, 3

If you need early exit, use for..of (or some() / every() / find() — these stop early by design).

Labels (Rarely Useful)

break only exits the innermost loop. To break out of an outer loop, you can label it:

outer: for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
  for (let j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
    if (i === 1 && j === 1) {
      break outer;
    }
    console.log(i, j);
  }
}
// 0 0, 0 1, 0 2, 1 0

Up Next

What makes something work with for..of? The iterable protocol.