# continue statement

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< c‎ | language

Causes the remaining portion of the enclosing for, while or do-while loop body to be skipped.

Used when it is otherwise awkward to ignore the remaining portion of the loop using conditional statements.

### Syntax

attr-spec-seq(optional) `continue` `;` |  |

attr-spec-seq | - | (C23)optional list of attributes, applied to the `continue` statement

### Explanation

The `continue` statement causes a jump, as if by goto, to the end of the loop body (it may only appear within the loop body of for, while, and do-while loops).

For while loop, it acts as

    while (/* ... */) {
       // ...
       continue; // acts as goto contin;
       // ...
       contin:;
    }

For do-while loop, it acts as:

    do {
        // ...
        continue; // acts as goto contin;
        // ...
        contin:;
    } while (/* ... */);

For for loop, it acts as:

    for (/* ... */) {
        // ...
        continue; // acts as goto contin;
        // ...
        contin:;
    }

### Keywords

`continue`

### Example

Run this code

    #include <stdio.h>

    int main(void)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            if (i != 5) continue;
            printf("%d ", i);             // this statement is skipped each time i != 5
        }

        printf("\n");

        for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++) {
            for (int k = 0; k < 5; k++) { // only this loop is affected by continue
                if (k == 3) continue;
                printf("%d%d ", j, k);    // this statement is skipped each time k == 3
            }
        }
    }

Output:

    5
    00 01 02 04 10 11 12 14

### References

- C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):

  - 6.8.6.2 The continue statement (p: 111)

- C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

  - 6.8.6.2 The continue statement (p: 153)

- C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

  - 6.8.6.2 The continue statement (p: 138)

- C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

  - 3.6.6.2 The continue statement

### See also

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