What is the purpose of the “break” statement in Java?

In Java, the break statement is used to end a loop or exit a switch statement.

1. In a loop, the break statement can be used to immediately terminate the loop and exit the loop body when a condition is met. This can save unnecessary iteration times during the loop process and improve program execution efficiency.

For example:

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    if (i == 5) {
        break; // 当i等于5时，立即结束循环
    }
    System.out.println(i);
}

Output results:

0
1
2
3
4

1. In a switch statement, the break statement is used to exit the switch block. Without a break statement, the program will continue to execute the next case until a break statement is encountered or the switch block ends.

For example:

int num = 2;
switch (num) {
    case 1:
        System.out.println("Number is 1");
        break;
    case 2:
        System.out.println("Number is 2");
        break;
    default:
        System.out.println("Number is not 1 or 2");
        break;
}

Output result:

Number is 2

By using the break statement, you can control the flow of the program in order to execute it the way you want.