How to: Skip to the Next Iteration of a Loop 

If you have completed your processing for the current iteration of a Do, For, or While loop, you can skip immediately to the next iteration by using a Continue Statement (Visual Basic).

Skipping to the Next Iteration

To skip to the next iteration of a For...Next loop

1. Write the For...Next loop in the normal way.

2. Use Continue For at any place you want to terminate the current iteration and proceed immediately to the next iteration.

   Public Function findLargestRatio(ByVal high() As Double, _
       ByVal low() As Double) As Double
       Dim ratio As Double
       Dim largestRatio As Double = Double.MinValue
       For counter As Integer = 0 To low.GetUpperBound(0)
           If Math.Abs(low(counter)) < System.Double.Epsilon _
               Then Continue For 
           ratio = high(counter) / low(counter)
           If Double.IsInfinity(ratio) OrElse Double.IsNaN(ratio) _
               Then Continue For 
           If ratio > largestRatio Then largestRatio = ratio
       Next counter
       Return largestRatio
   End Function
   

Skipping from Within a Nested Loop

If you have Do, For, or While loops nested one within another, you can skip immediately to the next iteration of any level in the nesting. This is only true, however, when the loops are of different types. If you have nested loops of the same type, for example nested While loops, Continue While skips to the next iteration of the innermost While loop.

To skip to the next iteration of a Do loop from within a nested For loop

1. Write the nested loops in the normal way.

2. Use Continue Do at any place that you want to terminate the current iteration of the inner For loop and skip to the next iteration of the outer Do loop.

   Public Sub divideElements(ByRef matrix(,) As Double)
       Dim i As Integer = -1
       Do Until i > matrix.GetUpperBound(0)
           i += 1
           For j As Integer = 0 To matrix.GetUpperBound(1)
               If matrix(j, j) = 0 Then Continue Do 
               matrix(i, j) /= matrix(j, j)
           Next j
       Loop 
   End Sub
   

See Also

Tasks

How to: Transfer Control Out of a Control Structure
How to: Run Several Statements Repeatedly
How to: Run Several Statements for Each Element in a Collection or Array
How to: Improve the Performance of a Loop

Reference

While...End While Statement (Visual Basic)
Do...Loop Statement (Visual Basic)
For...Next Statement (Visual Basic)

Concepts

Loop Structures
Nested Control Structures

Other Resources

Control Flow in Visual Basic