##### cppreference.com

##### Search

Create account

##### Namespaces

- Page
- Discussion

##### Variants

##### Views

- View
- Edit
- History

##### Actions

# break statement

From cppreference.com
< c‎ | language

Causes the enclosing for, while or do-while loop or switch statement to terminate.

Used when it is otherwise awkward to terminate the loop using the condition expression and conditional statements.

### [edit] Syntax

`break` |  |

### [edit] Explanation

After this statement the control is transferred to the statement immediately following the enclosing loop. All automatic storage objects declared in enclosing loop are destroyed before the execution of the first line following the enclosing loop.

### [edit] Keywords

`break`

### [edit] Example

Run this code

    #include <stdio.h>

    int main()
    {
        int i = 2;
        switch (i) {
            case 1: printf("1");
            case 2: printf("2");   /* execution starts at this case label */
            case 3: printf("3");
            case 4:
            case 5: printf("45");
                    break;         /* execution of subsequent cases is terminated */
            case 6: printf("6");
        }

        printf("\n");

        /* Compare outputs from these two double for loops. */
        int j,k;
        for (j = 0; j < 2; j++) {
            for (k = 0; k < 5; k++) {
                printf("%d%d ", j,k);
            }
        }
        printf("\n");
        for (j = 0; j < 2; j++) {
            for (k = 0; k < 5; k++) {
                if (k == 2) break;
                printf("%d%d ", j,k);
            }
        }
    }

Output:

    2345
    00 01 02 03 04 10 11 12 13 14
    00 01 10 11

Retrieved from "http://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=c/language/break&oldid=67926"