What's the best way to break from nested loops in JavaScript?

Gary Willoughby picture Gary Willoughby · Oct 8, 2008 · Viewed 264.8k times · Source

What's the best way to break from nested loops in Javascript?

//Write the links to the page.
for (var x = 0; x < Args.length; x++)
{
   for (var Heading in Navigation.Headings)
   {
      for (var Item in Navigation.Headings[Heading])
      {
         if (Args[x] == Navigation.Headings[Heading][Item].Name)
         {
            document.write("<a href=\"" 
               + Navigation.Headings[Heading][Item].URL + "\">" 
               + Navigation.Headings[Heading][Item].Name + "</a> : ");
            break; // <---HERE, I need to break out of two loops.
         }
      }
   }
}

Answer

ephemient picture ephemient · Oct 8, 2008

Just like Perl,

loop1:
    for (var i in set1) {
loop2:
        for (var j in set2) {
loop3:
            for (var k in set3) {
                break loop2;  // breaks out of loop3 and loop2
            }
        }
    }

as defined in EMCA-262 section 12.12. [MDN Docs]

Unlike C, these labels can only be used for continue and break, as Javascript does not have goto.