The continue instruction causes the next iteration of the innermost matching while or foreach loop to begin.
Syntax
The syntax of the continue instruction is:
continue [label];
Description
In the case of a while loop, the continue instruction passes control to the test of the while condition. In a foreach loop, control passes to the point at which the control variable is assigned its next value.
If you specify a label, control passes to the next iteration of the loop instruction matching the label.
The continue instruction alleviates the need for code within loops becoming too deeply nested. For example, consider a loop that reads some input data, checks that it is valid, and if so, processes it.
If there are a number of validity tests or they are complex, the code may look like that shown in the code fragment in the following example.
while moreData do
readData;
if checkFirstDataItem then
if checkSecondDataItem then
...
...
if checkLastDataItem then
processData;
endif;
...
...
endif;
endif;
endwhile;
The following example shows the code in the above example rewritten without the deep indentation, by using the continue instruction.
while moreData do
readData;
if not checkFirstDataItem then
continue;
endif;
if not checkSecondDataItem then
continue;
endif;
...
if not checkLastDataItem then
continue;
endif;
processData;
endwhile;
Example
The following example displays the integers 1 through 10 except for 5 in ascending order, by using the continue instruction.
vars
count : Integer;
begin
foreach count in 1 to 10 do
if count = 5 then
continue;
endif;
write count; // Outputs 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10
endforeach;
end;