Question

I just got bit by assuming the following:

foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
  switch($key) {
    // ... some other cases
    default:
      continue;
      // ^== assumption: move on to the next iteration of the foreach
      //     actual PHP: treat this continue just like a break
  }
  // ...
}

But in fact, according to the documentation for continue:

the switch statement is considered a looping structure for the purposes of continue.

Is there a reason for this choice on the part of PHP language designers? As far as I can tell, switch isn’t a looping control structure, so why treat it like one in this case?

Answer 1

I think you won’t find any real “reason” for this behavior.

The only real motivation behind this behavior was probably that implementing switch as if it were a looping structure allows PHP to reuse existing break and continue semantics of loops instead of reimplementing a special version for switch.

Or to phrase it more positively: It’s for consistency.