How does 'break' work?

Hi, I need to know what happens after "break"? what does the loop skip to? I need it to skip to "for i = 1:50" and start from a new i. Please help me.

for i = 1:50
  if a {i,5}(1) <= a{1,4}(1)
      b{i,1} =  a{1,1};
  else
      for j = 1:50
          if  a {i,5}(1) >= a{j,4}(1) && a{i,5}(1) <= a{j+1,4}(1)
              b{i,1} = a{j+1,1};
              break
          end
      end
  end
end

[Adam]

doc break

is a useful start.

[Sherwin]

Thank you.

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

The "break" statement breaks out of the "innermost" loop that it is inside of. In your code above, it will break out of the for j=1:50 loop and start executing at the next line after the "j loop" end statement. This next statement happens to be the end statement in an else clause. Since there is no "i loop" code after this end statement other than the "i loop" end statement, this break will effectively cause the for i=1:50 loop to skip to the next i also.

[Sherwin]

So it will skip to the next i when b is assigned and it breaks, right?

[James Tursa]

Yes. Right after b{i,1} is assigned, it will break out of the "j loop". The next statement it hits is the "end" associated with the "else" block. So it exits this "else" block. The next statement it hits is the "end" associated with the "i loop". So this will effectively cause the code to skip to the next "i" iteration.

[Sherwin]

Thank you so much!

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

"break" lets some of the Magic Smoke out of your loop. It is sort of like letting some of the air out of your tires -- while you are driving on the highway!

[Sherwin]

Beautiful metaphor! Thank you :)