🌟 The Honest Journey of a Student: Learning, Failing, and Growing

🔀 Break and Continue in C Programming

🧠 Complete Beginner Guide with Examples, Output & Practical Programs

📘 Part of the C Programming Beginner Series by Learning Growth Hub
✨ Written by Krishna Popat

---

🚀 Introduction

In C programming, loops allow us to execute a block of code multiple times.

However, in real programs, we often need more control over loop execution. For example, we may want to:

✔ Stop the loop immediately
✔ Skip a specific iteration
✔ Control execution efficiently

To handle these situations, C provides two important control statements:

✅ break
✅ continue

These statements are commonly used inside:

• for loop

• while loop

• do-while loop

👉 Also Read: Loops in C Programming – Complete Guide

Let’s understand them step by step.

---

1️⃣ The break Statement in C

📌 What is break?

The break statement is used to immediately terminate a loop.

When break executes:

• The loop stops instantly

• Control moves to the first statement after the loop

---

🧪 Example 1: Stop Loop When i = 5

Let’s understand this step by step:

#include <stdio.h>   // Include standard input-output library

int main() {         // Main function begins

    for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {   // Loop runs from 1 to 10

        if (i == 5) {   // Check if i becomes 5
            break;      // Exit the loop immediately
        }

        printf("%d\n", i);   // Print current value of i
    }

    return 0;   // End of program
}

📤 Output:

1
2
3
4

👉 The loop stops as soon as i becomes 5.

---

2️⃣ The continue Statement in C

📌 What is continue?

The continue statement skips the current iteration of the loop.

When continue executes:

• The current iteration stops

• The loop moves to the next iteration

---

🧪 Example 2: Skip Number 5

Let’s understand this step by step:

#include <stdio.h>   // Include standard library

int main() {         // Main function starts

    for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {   // Loop runs from 1 to 10

        if (i == 5) {   // Check if i equals 5
            continue;   // Skip this iteration
        }

        printf("%d\n", i);   // Print the value of i
    }

    return 0;   // End program
}

📤 Output:

1
2
3
4
6
7
8
9
10

👉 The number 5 is skipped, but the loop continues.

---

🌍 Practical Example 1: Number Guessing Game (Using break)

Let’s understand this step by step:

#include <stdio.h>   // Include standard library

int main() {         // Main function begins

    int secret = 7;   // Store secret number
    int guess;        // Variable to store user guess

    while (1) {       // Infinite loop (runs until break is executed)

        printf("Enter your guess: ");   // Ask user to enter guess
        scanf("%d", &guess);            // Read user input

        if (guess == secret) {          // Check if guess is correct
            printf("Correct Guess!\n"); // Print success message
            break;                      // Exit loop if correct
        }

        printf("Try Again!\n");         // Ask user to try again
    }

    return 0;   // End program
}

👉 Used in:

• Games

• Login systems

• Verification systems

---

🔐 Practical Example 2: ATM PIN Verification (Using break)

Let’s understand this step by step:

#include <stdio.h>   // Include standard library

int main() {         // Main function begins

    int correctPin = 1234;   // Store correct PIN
    int pin;                 // Variable for user input
    int attempts = 0;        // Counter to track attempts

    while (attempts < 3) {   // Allow maximum 3 attempts

        printf("Enter PIN: ");   // Ask user to enter PIN
        scanf("%d", &pin);       // Read PIN from user

        if (pin == correctPin) {     // Check if PIN is correct
            printf("Access Granted\n");  // Success message
            break;                      // Exit loop
        }

        printf("Wrong PIN\n");   // Display error message
        attempts++;              // Increase attempt count
    }

    if (attempts == 3) {   // If all attempts are used
        printf("Account Blocked\n");   // Block account
    }

    return 0;   // End program
}

👉 Real-life applications:

• ATM machines

• Banking apps

• Security systems

---

📊 Practical Example 3: Skip Negative Numbers (Using continue)

Let’s understand this step by step:

#include <stdio.h>   // Include standard library

int main() {         // Main function begins

    int num;   // Variable to store user input

    for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {   // Loop runs 5 times

        printf("Enter a number: ");   // Ask user to enter number
        scanf("%d", &num);            // Read number

        if (num < 0) {   // Check if number is negative
            continue;    // Skip negative numbers
        }

        printf("Positive Number: %d\n", num);   // Print only positive numbers
    }

    return 0;   // End program
}

👉 Used in:

• Data filtering

• Input validation

• Ignoring invalid entries

---

🎯 Why break and continue Are Important

Without these statements:

❌ You cannot efficiently control loop behavior
❌ Programs may execute unnecessary iterations
❌ Performance can decrease

With these statements:

✔ Programs become more efficient
✔ Logic becomes cleaner
✔ Execution becomes optimized

---

🧪 Practice Questions

1️⃣ Print numbers from 1 to 20 but stop at 12 using break.
2️⃣ Print numbers from 1 to 15 but skip multiples of 3 using continue.
3️⃣ Write a program to find the first number divisible by 7 between 1 and 100.
4️⃣ Create a simple menu-driven calculator using break.

Practice regularly to strengthen your programming logic 💪

📊 Visual Comparison: break vs continue

To understand the difference more clearly, let’s look at a side-by-side comparison table below. This will help you quickly revise and remember the key differences between break and continue.

🔎 Key Takeaway

From the comparison above, we can clearly see that:

• break completely terminates the loop.

• continue only skips the current iteration and moves to the next one.

• Both are used inside loops to control execution flow efficiently.

Understanding this difference is important for writing optimized and logical programs.

📌 Tip: Use break when you want to stop execution entirely. Use continue when you only want to skip specific conditions.

---

🎯 Final Conclusion

The break and continue statements are essential loop control tools in C programming.

They help you:

✔ Stop loops when necessary
✔ Skip unnecessary iterations
✔ Write efficient and optimized programs

Mastering these control statements is crucial for building strong logical thinking and writing professional C programs.

---

🚀 What’s Next on Learning Growth Hub?

👉 Nested Loops in C Programming
👉 Pattern Printing Programs
👉 Arrays in C

Stay consistent. Keep practicing. Keep growing 🌱

---

💬 Call-To-Action

If this tutorial helped you:

✔ Share it with your friends
✔ Comment your doubts below
✔ Practice all the programs
✔ Follow Learning Growth Hub for more beginner-friendly tutorials

More powerful programming content coming soon 🚀✨

---

📌 Keep Learning. Keep Coding. Keep Growing.

✨ Written by Krishna Popat
🌱 Founder, Learning Growth Hub