C++ Lesson 17: The 'Remote Control' in Loops

Hello everyone, I am Teacher Geng, teaching programming. This is the 17th lesson in our C++ programming series, welcome back!In the previous lessons, we have learned to write various loops using for and while. However, in actual programming, loops do not always need to run to completion.Today, we will learn two keywords that are used to interrupt or skip loops:break —— terminate the loopcontinue —— skip the current iteration of the loopFirst, let’s look atbreak: immediately terminate the entire loopYou can think of it as:The teacher slams the desk, everyone stop writing, homework is over!Let’s look at an example: output numbers starting from 1, and stop immediately when reaching 5

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
    for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++){
        if(i == 5){
            break;
        }
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    return 0;
}

Output:

1 2 3 4

When i == 5 is triggered, break causes the entire loop to end early, and the subsequent numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are not output.

Next, let’s look atcontinue: skip this iteration and continue to the next one

You can think of it as:The teacher sees you got this question wrong, takes it away, and you continue with the next question.

Let’s see an example: output the odd numbers from 1 to 10 (skip the even numbers)

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
    for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++){
        if(i % 2 == 0){
            continue;
        }
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    return 0;
}

Output:

1 3 5 7 9

When i is even, it triggers continue, skipping the current iteration and not executing cout.

To summarize:

Statement Used	Purpose Illustration	Recommended Scenario
`<span>break</span>`	leave class early	exit the loop immediately after finding the answer
`<span>continue</span>`	“Forget this question, skip!”	filter out and skip non-compliant situations

Very simple, right? Really very simple.

Let’s do a practice problem: output the first 10 numbers from 1 to 100 that are not multiples of 7.

Requirements:

Skip numbers that are divisible by 7 (use continue)

Stop printing after reaching 10 numbers (use break)

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){
    int count = 0;
    for(int i = 1; i <= 100; i++){
        if(i % 7 == 0){
            continue;
        }
        cout << i << " ";
        count++;
        if(count == 10){
            break;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Output:

1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11

This problem is purely to demonstrate the use of continue and break, and normally you wouldn’t write such clumsy code. To exit at 10, you could just use i <= 10 in the for loop, right? Haha.

Alright, let’s summarize again:

Keyword	Function	Analogy Understanding
`<span>break</span>`	end the entire loop	the teacher shouts stop, the whole class stops writing homework
`<span>continue</span>`	skip the current iteration, continue to the next	not writing this question, continue to the next

Okay, that’s all for this lesson!

Congratulations on completing Lesson 17 of C++! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

If you have learned it, please leave a comment saying “Got it”, and if you find it useful, share it with your friends to learn together.See you in the next lesson.

Enrollment Guidelines:

Meet the following conditions:

1. Fourth grade or above, with adequate math skills.

2. Pass the entrance math assessment.

3. No pressure in class learning, with ample time outside of class.

C++ Easy Introduction Tutorial:

001 Write your first line of C++ code

002 How to output a new line

003 Expressions, Operators, and Variables

004 Variable Naming Rules and Input

005 Compound Operations and Increment/Decrement

006 Number Decomposition

007 Data Type: float

008 Single Branch and Double Branch

009 Multiple Branch Structures

010 Logical Operators

011 Finding Common Multiples and Maximum Value

012 In-depth Understanding of switch Statement

013 while Loop

014 Characters and ASCII Codes

015 do…while Loop

016 for Loop

C++ Lesson 17: The ‘Remote Control’ in Loops

Leave a Comment Cancel reply