Branching statements

An essential concept in computer programming, a branch serves as an instruction that can lead a computer to depart from its default behavior of executing instructions sequentially. This diversion from the norm enables the program to follow a different sequence of instructions. Among the frequently encountered branching statements are break, continue, return, and goto.

• The break statement is a branching statement in PHP that is used to prematurely exit a loop. When a break statement is encountered within a loop (e.g., for, while, foreach), it immediately terminates the loop, and control is transferred to the first statement following the loop.

• The break statement is typically used when a certain condition is met, and you want to exit the loop without completing all iterations. It allows you to terminate the loop prematurely based on a specific condition.
• When a break statement is executed, it doesn't execute any code after the loop block; instead, it moves to the next statement outside the loop.
• break is commonly used to exit loops early when a particular condition is satisfied, which can help improve code efficiency and performance.

• The continue statement is a branching statement in PHP that is used to skip the current iteration of a loop and continue to the next iteration. When a continue statement is encountered within a loop, it immediately stops the current iteration and proceeds to the next iteration.

• The continue statement is often used when you want to skip the remaining code in the current iteration of a loop but continue with the next iteration. It allows you to control the flow within the loop.
• Unlike the break statement, continue does not exit the loop entirely; it only affects the current iteration. After continue is executed, the loop checks the loop condition (e.g., while, for) and continues to the next iteration if the condition is still true.
• continue is useful when you encounter a specific condition within an iteration that should not affect the entire loop but requires you to skip a portion of the code.

In summary, break is used to exit a loop prematurely, terminating the loop entirely, while continue is used to skip the remaining code in the current iteration and move to the next iteration within the loop. These branching statements provide flexibility in controlling the flow of loops in your PHP programs.