An in depth analysis of the role of tags in the Java cycle

continue and break can change the execution flow of the loop, but in multiple loops, these two statements cannot jump directly from the inner loop to the outer loop. In the C language, it is possible to jump through multiple loops with goto statements, but using goto statements in acyclic structures can make programs unstructured and less readable. So Java invented an continue and break statement with a label, which is actually an goto statement with a restriction for loops.

Normally we use continue (or break) statements with no labels, which means continue (or break) statements are executed in the current loop by default. The tagged loop actually gives the loop a name, and when the "continue (or break) + tag" statement is used, the continue (or break) statement is actually executed in the loop where the tag is located.

Now let's use three examples to illustrate the tagged loop.

1. Double loop

without labels

package javaleanning;
public class LableTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++){
System.out.print("("+i+","+j+") ");
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}

run results

(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,3) (0,4) (0,5) (0,6) (0,7) (0,8) (0,9)

(1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,3) (1,4) (1,5) (1,6) (1,7) (1,8) (1,9)

(2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,3) (2,4) (2,5) (2,6) (2,7) (2,8) (2,9)

(3,0) (3,1) (3,2) (3,3) (3,4) (3,5) (3,6) (3,7) (3,8) (3,9)

(4,0) (4,1) (4,2) (4,3) (4,4) (4,5) (4,6) (4,7) (4,8) (4,9)

(5,0) (5,1) (5,2) (5,3) (5,4) (5,5) (5,6) (5,7) (5,8) (5,9)

(6,0) (6,1) (6,2) (6,3) (6,4) (6,5) (6,6) (6,7) (6,8) (6,9)

(7,0) (7,1) (7,2) (7,3) (7,4) (7,5) (7,6) (7,7) (7,8) (7,9)

(8,0) (8,1) (8,2) (8,3) (8,4) (8,5) (8,6) (8,7) (8,8) (8,9)

(9,0) (9,1) (9,2) (9,3) (9,4) (9,5) (9,6) (9,7) (9,8) (9,9)

2. Double loop with label, break+ label statement

In this example, we have a double for loop. We label the outer loop at the beginning (that is, we give the outer loop a name) "outerCycle".

package javaleanning; 
public class LableTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
outerCycle:
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++){
if(j == 5){
break outerCycle;
}
System.out.print("("+i+","+j+") ");
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}

Run the result

(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,3) (0,4)

3. Double loop with label, continue+ label statement

In this case, we have a double for loop, where we label the outer loop at the beginning (that is, we give the outer loop a name) "outerCycle", and when we use the inner loop "continue outerCycle", we use the continue statement directly in the outerCycle loop.

package javaleanning;
public class LableTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
outerCycle:
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++){
if(j == 5){
continue outerCycle;
}
System.out.print("("+i+","+j+") ");
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}

Run the result

(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,3) (0,4) (1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,3) (1,4) (2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,3) (2,4) (3,0) (3,1) (3,2) (3,3) (3,4) (4,0) (4,1) (4,2) (4,3) (4,4) (5,0) (5,1) (5,2) (5,3) (5,4) (6,0) (6,1) (6,2) (6,3) (6,4) (7,0) (7,1) (7,2) (7,3) (7,4) (8,0) (8,1) (8,2) (8,3) (8,4) (9,0) (9,1) (9,2) (9,3) (9,4)

Note: the actual results of the run are all displayed in one line (i.e., no line wrap statement is executed), which is now only displayed for typographical reasons