Question

Maybe this is a dumb question but is there a way to return to the top of a loop?

Example:

for(var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {

    if(i == 3)
        return;

    alert(i);
}

What you’d expect in other languages is that the alert would trigger 4 times like so:

alert(0);
alert(1);
alert(2);
alert(4);

but instead, the function is exited immediately when i is 3. What gives?

Answer 1

Use continue instead of return.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/TYLgJ/

for(var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {

    if(i == 3)
        continue;

    alert(i);
}

If you wanted to completely halt the loop at that point, you would use break instead of return. The return statement is used to return a value from a function that is being executed.

EDIT: Documentation links provided by @epascarello the comments below.

• Docs for continue: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/continue
• Docs for return: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/return