How do I break an outer loop from an inner one in Perl?

David B picture David B · Sep 14, 2010 · Viewed 16k times · Source

Suppose I have a piece of Perl code like:

foreach my $x (@x) {
 foreach my $y (@z) {
  foreach my $z (@z) {
   if (something()) {
    # I want to break free!
   }
   # do stuff 
  }
  # do stuff
 }
 # do stuff
}

If something() is true, I would like to break ('last') all the loops.

how can I do that? I thought of two options, both of which I don't like: Using something GOTO Adding a boolean variable which will mark something() is true, check this var in each of the loops before they resume and last() if it's true.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks.

Answer

Wooble picture Wooble · Sep 14, 2010

Use a label:

OUTER:
foreach my $x (@x) {
 foreach my $y (@z) {
  foreach my $z (@z) {
   if (something()) {
    last OUTER;
   }
   # do stuff 
  }
  # do stuff
 }
 # do stuff
}