The continue keyword

JavaScriptJunior~3 min read

The continue keyword is used inside loops and means "skip the rest of the current iteration and move on to the next one". The loop is not stopped completely, as it would be with break; it simply moves to the next step.

Theory

TL;DR

continue skips all remaining code in the iteration body and hands control to the next iteration.
break stops the loop entirely, continue stops only the current pass.
It works in every loop: for, while, do...while, for...of, for...in. Outside a loop it is a syntax error.
In a for loop the update step (i++) still runs after continue; in a while loop control goes straight to the condition check.
With a label, continue label jumps to the next iteration of the labelled outer loop.
continue does not work in forEach; there the same role is played by return.

Quick example

javascript

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
  if (i === 3) continue; // skip 3
  console.log(i);
}

Result:

text

What happened: at i = 3 the continue fired, JavaScript skipped console.log(i) and went straight to the next iteration (i = 4).

`continue` in a `while` loop

javascript

let i = 0;

while (i < 5) {
  i++;
  if (i === 3) continue;
  console.log(i);
}

Result:

text

As soon as i === 3, continue skips console.log(i) and the loop goes back to checking i < 5. It is critical here that i++ comes before the continue: if the counter were incremented at the end of the body, continue would skip it and the loop would run forever. A for loop does not have this problem, because the i++ step lives in the loop header and always runs.

The difference between `break` and `continue`

Keyword	What it does
`break`	Stops the loop completely
`continue`	Skips the rest of the loop body and moves to the next iteration

An example where both are used together:

javascript

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
  if (i === 3) continue; // skip 3
  if (i === 5) break;    // stop the loop
  console.log(i);
}

Result:

text

1
2
4

Filtering iterations by a condition

javascript

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
  if (i % 2 === 0) continue; // skip even numbers
  console.log(i);
}

Result:

text

This is handy when an action should run only for certain elements. Such an early exit from the iteration keeps the main loop body free of extra if nesting, so the code reads better.

Labels and nested loops

continue can be used with a label when you need to move to the next iteration of an outer loop.

javascript

outer: for (let i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
  for (let j = 1; j <= 3; j++) {
    if (j === 2) continue outer; // skip the rest of the inner loop
    console.log(`i=${i}, j=${j}`);
  }
}

Result:

text

i=1, j=1
i=2, j=1
i=3, j=1

Without a label, continue always refers to the nearest enclosing loop, so the only ways up a level are a label or extracting the inner loop into its own function.

Summary table

Question	Answer
What `continue` does	Skips the remaining code of the iteration and moves to the next one
Where it is used	Only in loops (`for`, `while`, `do...while`, `for...of`, `for...in`)
Difference from `break`	`break` stops the loop completely
Working with labels	`continue label` continues the labelled outer loop

Common mistakes

Placing continue in a while loop before the counter is incremented, which produces an infinite loop.
Expecting continue to work in forEach or map. Those are methods, not loops; there return plays the skipping role, and the iteration cannot be aborted at all.
Confusing continue with break: the first skips a step, the second ends the loop.
Using continue outside a loop, for example in a switch or just in a function body. That is a SyntaxError.
Overusing labels: two or three levels of labelled nesting read worse than an extracted function with a return.
Assuming continue also skips a trailing block such as try ... finally. The finally block runs in any case.

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