Break

Sometimes you need to exit a loop early, before it naturally finishes. The break statement lets you immediately stop a loop and jump to the code after it.

Consider searching for a specific number in a range:

for (i in 1..10) {
    if (i == 5) {
        println("Found it!")
        break
    }
    println(i)
}
println("Loop ended")
// Output:
// 1
// 2
// 3
// 4
// Found it!
// Loop ended

When i equals 5, the break executes and the loop stops immediately. The remaining iterations (6 through 10) never run.

The break statement works with all loop types.

Here's an example with a while loop:

var count = 0
while (true) {
    count++
    if (count > 3) {
        break
    }
    println(count)
}
// Output:
// 1
// 2
// 3

This pattern is useful when you want to exit based on a condition that's easier to check inside the loop rather than in the loop's condition itself.