PHP continue Statement

continue skips the rest of the current round and jumps to the next one. The loop itself keeps running.

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<?php
for ($i = 1; $i <= 6; $i++) {
    if ($i % 2 === 0) {
        continue;   // skip even numbers
    }
    echo $i . " ";
}

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1 3 5

For the even numbers, PHP skipped the echo and went straight to the next $i.

break vs continue

Skip invalid items

A common use is to ignore items you cannot process.

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<?php
$emails = ["a@example.com", "", "not-an-email", "b@example.com"];

foreach ($emails as $email) {
    if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
        continue;
    }

    echo "Sending to $email\n";
}

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Sending to a@example.com
Sending to b@example.com

Notice the style: the invalid case is dealt with first and the main work stays at the same indentation level. This “guard” style avoids a deep if inside the loop.

continue in while loops: be careful

In a while loop, continue jumps back to the condition. Make sure the counter is updated before it.

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<?php
$i = 0;

while ($i < 5) {
    $i++;               // update first
    if ($i === 3) {
        continue;
    }
    echo $i . " ";
}

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If $i++ were at the bottom, the continue would skip it, and the loop would never end when $i equals 3.

continue 2 in nested loops

continue 2 skips to the next round of the outer loop.

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<?php
foreach (["Ann", "Ben"] as $name) {
    foreach ([1, 2, 3] as $number) {
        if ($number === 2) {
            continue 2;
        }
        echo "$name-$number ";
    }
}

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Ann-1 Ben-1