The break statement terminates the closest enclosing loop or switch statement in which it appears. Control is passed to the statement that follows the terminated statement, if any. This statement takes the following form:

break;

Example

In this example, the conditional statement contains a counter that is supposed to count from 1 to 100; however, the break statement terminates the loop after 4 counts.

// statements_break.cs
using System;
class BreakTest 
{
   public static void Main() 
   {
      for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++) 
      {
         if (i == 5) 
            break;
         Console.WriteLine(i);
      }
   }
}

Output

1
2
3
4

Example

This example demonstrates the use of break in a switch statement.

// statements_break2.cs
// break and switch
using System;
class Switch 
{
   public static void Main() 
   {
      Console.Write("Enter your selection (1, 2, or 3): ");
      string s = Console.ReadLine();   
      int n = Int32.Parse(s);

      switch(n) 
      {
         case 1:
            Console.WriteLine("Current value is {0}", 1);
            break;
         case 2:
            Console.WriteLine("Current value is {0}", 2);
            break;
         case 3:
            Console.WriteLine("Current value is {0}", 3);
            break;
         default:
            Console.WriteLine("Sorry, invalid selection.");
            break;
      }
   }
}

Input

1

Sample Output

Enter your selection (1, 2, or 3): 1
Current value is 1

If you entered 4, the output would be:

Enter your selection (1, 2, or 3): 4
Sorry, invalid selection.

See Also

C# Keywords | <_pluslang_the_c.2b2b_.break_statement>Compare to C++ | switch | Jump Statements | C. Grammar