(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
break ends execution of the current for, foreach, while, do-while or switch structure.
break accepts an optional numeric argument which tells it how many nested enclosing structures are to be broken out of. The default value is 1, only the immediate enclosing structure is broken out of.
<?php
$arr = array('one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'stop', 'five');
foreach ($arr as $val) {
if ($val == 'stop') {
break; /* You could also write 'break 1;' here. */
}
echo "$val<br />\n";
}
/* Using the optional argument. */
$i = 0;
while (++$i) {
switch ($i) {
case 5:
echo "At 5<br />\n";
break 1; /* Exit only the switch. */
case 10:
echo "At 10; quitting<br />\n";
break 2; /* Exit the switch and the while. */
default:
break;
}
}
?>
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 7.0.0 |
break outside of a loop or switch
control structure is now detected at compile-time instead of run-time as
before, and triggers an E_COMPILE_ERROR.
|
| 5.4.0 | break 0; is no longer valid. In previous versions it was interpreted the same as break 1;. |
| 5.4.0 | Removed the ability to pass in variables (e.g., $num = 2; break $num;) as the numerical argument. |
add a note
A break statement that is in the outer part of a program (e.g. not in a control loop) will end the script. This caught me out when I mistakenly had a break in an if statement
i.e.
<?php
echo "hello";
if (true) break;
echo " world";
?>
will only show "hello"
vlad at vlad dot neosurge dot net wrote on 04-Jan-2003 04:21
> Just an insignificant side not: Like in C/C++, it's not
> necessary to break out of the default part of a switch
> statement in PHP.
It's not necessary to break out of any case of a switch statement in PHP, but if you want only one case to be executed, you have do break out of it (even out of the default case).
Consider this:
<?php
$a = 'Apple';
switch ($a) {
default:
echo '$a is not an orange<br>';
case 'Orange':
echo '$a is an orange';
}
?>
This prints (in PHP 5.0.4 on MS-Windows):
$a is not an orange
$a is an orange
Note that the PHP documentation does not state the default part must be the last case statement.
If the numerical argument is higher than the number of things which can be broken out of, it seems to me like the execution of the entire program is stopped.
My program had 8 nested loops. Didn't bother counting them, but wrote: break 10. - Result: Code following the loops was not processed.
