Break And Continue

BREAK and CONTINUE in Loops

In ApLang, loops like REPEAT, REPEAT UNTIL, and FOR EACH give you the ability to control the flow of the loop execution using the BREAK and CONTINUE keywords.

The BREAK keyword allows you to exit a loop entirely before it naturally finishes. Once the BREAK statement is encountered, the program will immediately stop executing the current loop and move to the next statement after the loop.

Here's an example of using BREAK in a loop:

REPEAT 10 TIMES {
    IF (i == 5) {
        BREAK
    }
    DISPLAY(i)
}
// This will display numbers from 1 to 4 and then stop

In this example, the loop will terminate when the value of i reaches 5, and no further iterations will be performed.

CONTINUE

The CONTINUE keyword is used to skip the current iteration of a loop and move to the next one without breaking out of the loop completely. Once the CONTINUE statement is encountered, the program will stop the current iteration and start the next iteration of the loop immediately.

Here's an example of using CONTINUE:

REPEAT 10 TIMES {
    IF (i == 5) {
        CONTINUE
    }
    DISPLAY(i)
}
// This will display numbers from 1 to 4 and 6 to 10, skipping 5

In this case, when the value of i is 5, the CONTINUE statement will skip displaying i and jump to the next iteration, so 5 will not be printed.

Using BREAK and CONTINUE in FOR EACH

Both BREAK and CONTINUE can also be used in FOR EACH loops to manage the flow of list iteration. Here's an example:

FOR EACH item IN myList {
    IF (item == "skipThis") {
        CONTINUE
    }
    IF (item == "stopHere") {
        BREAK
    }
    DISPLAY(item)
}

In this example, the CONTINUE statement skips the iteration where item equals "skipThis", and the BREAK statement stops the loop entirely when item equals "stopHere".

Conclusion

The BREAK and CONTINUE keywords give you finer control over loop execution in ApLang. Whether you need to prematurely exit a loop or skip over specific iterations, these commands provide essential tools for managing complex looping conditions.