"continue" Statements

Java Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟"continue" Statements

This section describes non-labeled 'continue' statement, which is a branching statement that transfers the control to the end of the immediate enclosing loop block and continues the next iteration of the loop.

"continue" statements have 2 forms: non-labeled "continue" statements and labeled "continue" statements. Let's look at non-labeled "continue" statements in this tutorial first.

What Is Non-Labeled "continue" Statement? - A non-labeled "continue" statement is a branching statement that transfers the control to the end of the immediate enclosing loop block and continues the next iteration of the loop.

Here is the syntax for a non-labeled "continue" statement.

while|do|for ... { // "continue" continues here
   ...
   continue
   ...
}

Note that non-labeled "continue" statements can not be used in statements other than "while", "do", or "for" statements.

Here is a sample program that shows you how to use non-labeled "continue" statements:

/* ContinueStatementTest.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.io.*;
import java.nio.file.*;
import java.time.*;
class ContinueStatementTest {
   public static void main(String[] arg) {
      java.io.PrintStream out = System.out;

      out.println("\"continue\" statement in a single-level loop:");
      long bytes = 0;
      int counts = 0;
      Path dir = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(arg[0]);
      try {
         DirectoryStream<Path> stream = Files.newDirectoryStream(dir);

         for (Path path : stream) { // "continue" continues here
            File file = path.toFile();

            if (file.isDirectory()) continue;
            bytes += file.length();
            counts++;
         }
      } catch (Exception e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
      out.println("   # of files: "+counts);
      out.println("   # of bytes: "+bytes);

      out.println("\"continue\" statement in a two-level loop:");
      LocalDate now = LocalDate.now();
      int year = now.getYear();

      for (int y = year-5; y < year; y++) {

         counts = 0;
         LocalDate d = LocalDate.of(y, 1, 1);

         for ( ; d.getYear() == y; d = d.plusDays(1) ) { // continues here

            if (d.getDayOfWeek() != DayOfWeek.SUNDAY)  continue;
            counts++;
         }
         out.println("   "+counts+" Sundays in year "+y);
      }
   }
}

If you compile and run the above program, you will see:

herong> java ContinueStatementTest.java .

"continue" statement in a single-level loop:
   # of files: 13
   # of bytes: 11827

"continue" statement in a two-level loop:
   52 Sundays in year 2015
   52 Sundays in year 2016
   53 Sundays in year 2017
   52 Sundays in year 2018
   52 Sundays in year 2019