Breaking Down break, continue, default, and switch in JavaScript

Control flow is at the heart of programming — and JavaScript offers several statements that give you fine-grained control over loops and conditionals. In this article, we’ll explore the break, continue, default, and switch keywords with examples to help you understand when and how to use them.

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🚪 break Statement

The break statement exits a loop or a switch block early, stopping further execution.

📌 Use Case:

• Exiting a for, while, or do...while loop when a certain condition is met.

• Exiting from a switch case once the matching condition is handled.

✅ Example: Exiting a Loop

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
  if (i === 3) break;
  console.log(i); // prints 1 and 2
}

✅ Example: In a switch

let fruit = 'apple';

switch (fruit) {
  case 'apple':
    console.log('It’s an apple');
    break; // exits the switch
  case 'banana':
    console.log('It’s a banana');
    break;
  default:
    console.log('Unknown fruit');
}

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🔄 continue Statement

The continue statement skips the current iteration of the loop and jumps to the next one.

📌 Use Case:

• You want to skip processing for some specific cases but keep the loop running.

✅ Example:

for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
  if (i === 3) continue;
  console.log(i); // prints 1, 2, 4, 5 (skips 3)
}

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🧠 switch Statement

The switch statement provides an elegant alternative to multiple if...else if...else blocks, especially when checking against discrete values.

📌 Use Case:

• Use when comparing one value against many possible constant matches.

✅ Basic Structure:

switch (expression) {
  case value1:
    // code block
    break;
  case value2:
    // code block
    break;
  default:
    // default block
}

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🧩 default in switch

The default keyword provides a fallback case in a switch block — similar to else in an if-else ladder.

✅ Example:

let day = 'Wednesday';

switch (day) {
  case 'Monday':
    console.log('Start your week strong!');
    break;
  case 'Friday':
    console.log('Almost the weekend!');
    break;
  case 'Sunday':
    console.log('Rest and recharge!');
    break;
  default:
    console.log('Just another regular day.');
}

If no case matches, the default block executes.

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🔁 Summary Table

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🎯 Final Thoughts

Understanding break, continue, switch, and default helps you write cleaner, more readable, and efficient control flow in JavaScript. These small but powerful keywords often make a big difference in how your logic behaves — especially in loops and multi-branch decision structures.