break and continue in Bash Scripting - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What does the break command do in a Bash loop?

The break command immediately stops the loop and exits it, skipping any remaining iterations.

beginner

What is the purpose of the continue command in a Bash loop?

The continue command skips the rest of the current loop iteration and moves to the next iteration.

intermediate

How would you use break inside a for loop to stop when a condition is met?

Inside the loop, use an if statement to check the condition. If true, run break to exit the loop immediately.

beginner

Explain the difference between break and continue in Bash loops.

break stops the entire loop immediately. continue skips only the current iteration and continues with the next one.

advanced

Can break and continue be used in nested loops in Bash? How?

Yes. break and continue affect only the innermost loop by default. You can specify a number to affect outer loops, e.g., break 2 breaks two loops.

What happens when break is executed inside a Bash loop?

A Nothing happens; the loop continues normally.

B The current iteration is skipped, and the loop continues.

C The loop restarts from the beginning.

D The loop stops immediately and exits.

break stops the loop immediately and exits it.

Which command skips the rest of the current loop iteration and moves to the next one?

A continue

B exit

C stop

D break

continue skips the rest of the current iteration and proceeds to the next.

In a nested loop, what does break 2 do?

A Breaks only the innermost loop.

B Breaks two levels of loops, exiting both.

C Skips two iterations of the current loop.

D Causes an error.

break 2 exits two nested loops at once.

What will this script print?<br>

for i in 1 2 3; do
  if [ "$i" -eq 2 ]; then
    continue
  fi
  echo $i
done

A 1 3

B 2 3

C 1 2 3

D 1 2

When i equals 2, continue skips printing it, so only 1 and 3 print.

Which command would you use to stop a loop immediately when a condition is met?

A exit

B continue

C break

D skip

break stops the loop immediately.

Describe how break and continue control the flow inside Bash loops.

Think about what happens to the loop after each command runs.

Explain how to use break and continue in nested loops in Bash.

Consider how many loops you want to exit or skip.