break statement

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

# Notes

A break statement cannot be used to break out of multiple nested loops. The goto statement may be used for this purpose.

# Example

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    int i = 2;
    switch (i)
    {
        case 1: printf("1");
        case 2: printf("2");   // i==2, so 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 nested for loops.
    for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
        for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++)
            printf("%d%d ", j,k);
    printf("\n");
 
    for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
    {
        for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++) // only this loop is exited by break
        {
            if (k == 2)
                break;
            printf("%d%d ", j,k);
        }
    }
}

# See also