Data Structures & Algorithms

Learn Java – Jumps Statements

Jumps Statements

Jumps statements are used to jump to a specific line in a program.

Java supports three jump statements.

  • break
  • continue
  • return

These three statements transfer control to other part of the program.

Let's see one by one how it works.

Break statements

Break Statement is a loop control statement that is used to terminate the loop. As soon as the break statement is encountered from within a loop, the loop iterations stop there, and control returns from the loop immediately to the first statement after the loop.

Example.

public  class  HelloWorld {
     public  static  void  main(String[] args) {
        // Initially loop is set to run from 1-5
        for(int i=1; i<=5; i++){
             // terminate loop when i is 4.
             if(i=4){
             break;
             System.out.print(i);
             }
         }
     }
}

Output: 1 2 3

In Java, break is majorly used for:

  • To exit a loop.
  • Terminate a sequence in a switch statement.

Continue Statements

Sometimes you doesn't want to execute a particular iteration in a loop. That is, you might want to continue running the loop but stop processing the particular iteration. Then continue statement performs such an action.

Example.

public  class  HelloWorld {
     public  static  void  main(String[] args) {
        // Initially loop is set to run from 1-5
        for(int i=1; i<=6; i++){
            // terminate loop when i is 4.
            if(i=4){
            continue;
            System.out.print(i);
            }
        }
    }
}

Output: 1 2 3 5 6

Break vs Continue

Let's us see how these two jump statements are different from each other.

break continue
The break statement is used to terminate the loop immediately. The continue statement is used to skip the current iteration of the loop.
break keyword is used to indicate break statements in java programming. continue keyword is used to indicate continue statement in java programming.
We can use a break with the switch statement. The continue statement brings the next iteration early.
It stops the execution of the loop. It does not stop the execution of the loop.

Return Statement

The return statement is used to explicitly return from a method. That is, it causes a program control to transfer back to the caller of the method. It is used to exit from a method, with or without a value. Usage of return keyword as there exist two ways as listed below as follows:

  • Case 1: Methods returning a value
  • Case 2: Methods not returning a value

Methods returning a value

// Main method
class  CodeExample {
    // Method 1
	public static int sumFunction(int a, int b) {
		int sum = a + b;
	    // Since return type of sunFunction method is integer so this method should return integer value	
		return sum;
	}
	
	// Main driver method
	public static void main(String[] args){
	    int a = 5;
	    int b = 8;
	    // here ans variable will receive sum from sumFunction
		int ans = sumFunction(a, b);
		// print statement
		System.out.println(ans);
	}
}

Output: 13

Output explanation: When we are calling a class CodeExample method that has return sum which returns the value of sum and that’s value gets displayed on the console.

Methods not returning a value

For methods that do not return a value, return statement in Java can be skipped. Here there arise two cases when there is no value been returned by the user as listed below as follows:

  • Method not using return statement in void function
  • Methods with return type void

Method not using return statement in void function

// Main method
class  CodeExample {
    // Method 1
	public static void sumFunction(int a, int b) {
		int sum = a + b;
	    // Since return type of sunFunction method is void so this method should not return any value.	
		System.out.println(sum);
	}
	
	// Main driver method
	public static void main(String[] args){
	    int a = 5;
	    int b = 8;
	    // Here, we will just call the function and the program will execute successfully.
	    sumFunction(a, b);
	}
}

Output: 13

Method with return type void

// Main method
class CodeExample {
    // Method 1
	public static void demoFunction(int n) {
		if(n<10) {
		    // return statement below(only using return statement and not returning anything)
            	    // control exits the method if this condition(i.e, n<9) is true.
		    return;
	        } else {
		   n++;
		}
	}
	// Main driver method
	public static void main(String[] args){
	     int n = 8;
	     // calling the function
	     sumFunction(n);
	}
}

Program executed successfully.