(gawk.info) Break Statement

 
 The `break' Statement
 =====================
 
    The `break' statement jumps out of the innermost `for', `while', or
 `do' loop that encloses it.  The following example finds the smallest
 divisor of any integer, and also identifies prime numbers:
 
      awk '# find smallest divisor of num
           { num = $1
             for (div = 2; div*div <= num; div++)
               if (num % div == 0)
                 break
             if (num % div == 0)
               printf "Smallest divisor of %d is %d\n", num, div
             else
               printf "%d is prime\n", num
           }'
 
    When the remainder is zero in the first `if' statement, `awk'
 immediately "breaks out" of the containing `for' loop.  This means that
 `awk' proceeds immediately to the statement following the loop and
 continues processing.  (This is very different from the `exit'
 statement which stops the entire `awk' program.   The `exit'
 Statement Exit Statement.)
 
    Here is another program equivalent to the previous one.  It
 illustrates how the CONDITION of a `for' or `while' could just as well
 be replaced with a `break' inside an `if':
 
      awk '# find smallest divisor of num
           { num = $1
             for (div = 2; ; div++) {
               if (num % div == 0) {
                 printf "Smallest divisor of %d is %d\n", num, div
                 break
               }
               if (div*div > num) {
                 printf "%d is prime\n", num
                 break
               }
             }
      }'
 
    As described above, the `break' statement has no meaning when used
 outside the body of a loop.  However, although it was never documented,
 historical implementations of `awk' have treated the `break' statement
 outside of a loop as if it were a `next' statement ( The `next'
 Statement Next Statement.).  Recent versions of Unix `awk' no longer
 allow this usage.  `gawk' will support this use of `break' only if
 `--traditional' has been specified on the command line ( Command
 Line Options Options.).  Otherwise, it will be treated as an error,
 since the POSIX standard specifies that `break' should only be used
 inside the body of a loop (d.c.).
Info Catalog
(gawk.info) For Statement
(gawk.info) Statements
(gawk.info) Continue Statement
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