Question

Possible Duplicate:
Breaking out of nested loops in Java

How can I use break and/or continue statements to return to the first line of the while loop at points 1, 2 and 3, for example, as indicated in the pseudocode?

Suppose I have a scenario reminiscent of the following:

while(condition) {
    // want to return to this point
    for (Integer x : xs) {
        // point 1
        for (Integer y : ys) {
            // point 2
            ...
        }
        ...
    }
    for (Integer a : as) {
        for (Integer b : bs) {
            // point 3
            ...
        }
        ...
    }
}

Answer 1

Use a label such as :

outer:
while(condition) {
// want to return to this point
for (Integer x : xs) {
    // point 1
    for (Integer y : ys) {
        // point 2
        ...
    }
    ...
}
for (Integer a : as) {
    for (Integer b : bs) {
        // point 3
        ...
    }
    ...
}

}

and you can then use break outer; to escape the while loop. This works with nested for loops as well, but I try not to overuse labels

As pointed out by @Peter, use continue outer; if you wish to finish the current outer iteration early and continue on to the next, as opposed to escaping the while loop.