Does break in a switch-statement terminates a for-loop?

Question

I am trying to understand return, break and continue. I know that break will stop the (inner) for loop. For example:

for (int i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
            // inner loop
            for (int j = 1; j <= 3; j++) {
                if (i == 2 && j == 2) {
                    // using break statement inside the inner loop
                    break;
                }
                System.out.println(i + " " + j);
            }
        }

I know the outer loop will go on.

What I don't understand is this here:

for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
            String line = null;
            switch (a) { 
                case 0:
                    line = "Hello";
                    break;
                case 1:
                    line = "How are you?";
                    break;
                case 2:
                    line = "What are you doing?";
                    break;

So it goes to case 0 and then break and the for-loop continues, why? I thought it will break the loop since it's not nested. Or is it because of the switch-statement - it's different than if-statements?

And in this case, it will terminate the whole while-loop... I can't see the difference.

while(winner == false){

                input = menuInput.nextInt();

                try {
                    if(input == 0 || input >= 9){
                        System.out.println("Ungültige Nummer, versuche nochmal!");
                        break; 
                    }

Answer 1

You can break a switch . You can't break an if . break is applied to the closest statement that could be break ed, so

for (int j = 1; j <= 3; j++) {
    if (i == 2 && j == 2) {
        // using break statement inside the inner loop
         break;
    }
    System.out.println(i + " " + j);
}

Here break refers to the for .

While here:

for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
    String line = null;
    switch (a) { 
        case 0:
            line = "Hello";
            break;

It refers to the switch .

Statements that can be break ed are for , while , do...while , switch .

For further info, you can see the spec .

Answer 2

The break applies to the inner-most thing which can be break'd (without a label). In this case, it's the switch - because the default switch behavior falls through. First, your code. Change,

for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
    String line = null;
    switch (a) { 
        case 0:
            line = "Hello";
            break;
        case 1:
            line = "How are you?";
            break;
        case 2:
            line = "What are you doing?";
            break;

Could be changed to

loop: for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
    String line = null;
    switch (a) { 
        case 0:
            line = "Hello";
            break loop;
        case 1:
            line = "How are you?";
            break loop;
        case 2:
            line = "What are you doing?";
            break loop;

Now, the second behavior would be fall-through. And that might look something like,

switch (a) {
case 0: case 2: case 4: case 6: case 8:
    System.out.println("even < 10");
    break;
case 1: case 3: case 5: case 7: case 9:
    System.out.println("odd < 10");
    break;
}

Answer 3

In switch, statement break means to end switch statement. Take a look at fall trough example .

In the loop, statement break means to end a loop.

Stop looping after using switch statement example:

for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
   Boolean shouldBreak = false;

   String line = null;
   switch (a) {
      case 0:
         line = "Hello";
         shouldBreak = true;
         break;
      case 1:
         line = "How are you?";
         shouldBreak = true;
         break;
   }

   if (shouldBreak){
      break;
   }
}