TOPIC
    about_Break

SHORT DESCRIPTION
    Describes a statement you can use to immediately exit Foreach, For, While,
    Do, or Switch statements.


LONG DESCRIPTION
    When a Break statement appears in a loop, such as a Foreach, For, Switch,  
    or While loop, the Break statement causes Windows PowerShell to immediately
    exit the loop. In a Switch construct that does not loop, Break causes 
    Windows PowerShell to exit the Switch code block.
 
 
    A Break statement can include a label that lets you exit embedded loops. 
    A label can specify any loop keyword, such as Foreach, For, or While, in a 
    script. When you use a label, Break exits the specified loop. Break exits 
    the specified loop, regardless of which loop the Break statement is in.


    The following example shows how to use a Break statement to exit a For 
    statement:


        for($i=1; $i -le 10; $i++)
        {
            Write-Host $i
            break
        }


    In this example, the Break statement exits the For loop when the $i 
    variable equals 1. Even though the For statement evaluates to True 
    until $i is greater than 10, Windows PowerShell reaches the break statement
    the first time the For loop is run. 

    It is more common to use the Break statement in a loop where 
    an inner condition must be met. Consider the following Foreach 
    statement example:


        $i=0
        $varB = 10,20,30,40
        foreach ($val in $varB)
        {    
            $i++
            if ($val -eq 30)
            {
                break
            }    
        }
        Write-Host "30 was found in array position $i"


    In this example, the Foreach statement iterates the $varB array. Each 
    time the code block is run, the $i variable is incremented by 1. The 
    If statement evaluates to False the first two times the 
    loop is run. The third time the loop is run, $i equals 3, and the $val 
    variable equals 30. At this point, the Break statement runs, and the 
    Foreach loop exits.


    You break out of the other looping statements in the same way you 
    break out of the Foreach loop. In the following example, the Break 
    statement exits a While statement when a DivideByZeroException exception
    is trapped using the Trap statement.


        $i = 3
        while ($true)
        {
            trap [DivideByZeroException] 
            {
                Write-Host "divide by zero trapped" 
                break
            }
            1 / $i--
        }


    A Break statement can include a label. If you use the Break keyword with
    a label, Windows PowerShell exits the labeled loop instead of exiting the
    current loop. The syntax for a label is as follows (this example shows a
    label in a While loop):


        :myLabel while (<condition>) { <statement list>}


    The label is a colon followed by a name that you assign. The label must be 
    the first token in a statement, and it must be followed by the looping 
    keyword, such as While.
 

    In Windows PowerShell, only loop keywords, such as Foreach, For, and While 
    can have a label.


    Break moves execution out of the labeled loop. In embedded loops, this has 
    a different result than the Break keyword has when it is used by itself. 
    This schematic example has a While statement with a For statement:
 

        :myLabel while (<condition 1>) 
        {
            for ($item in $items) 
            { 
                if (<condition 2>) { break myLabel } 
                $item = $x   # A statement inside the For-loop
            }
        }
        $a = $c  # A statement after the labeled While-loop


    If condition 2 evaluates to True, the execution of the script skips down
    to the statement after the labeled loop. In the example, execution starts
    again with the statement "$a = $c". 


    You can nest many labeled loops, as shown in the following schematic 
    example.


        :red while (<condition1>)
        {
            :yellow while (<condition2>)
            {
                while (<condition3>)
                {
                    if ($a) {break}
                    if ($b) {break red}
                    if ($c) {break yellow}
                }
                # After innermost loop
            }
                # After "yellow" loop
        }
                # After "red" loop


    If the $b variable evaluates to True, execution of the script resumes 
    after the loop that is labeled "red". If the $c variable evaluates to 
    True, execution of the script control resumes after the loop that is 
    labeled "yellow".


    If the $a variable evaluates to True, execution resumes after the innermost
    loop. No label is needed.


    Windows PowerShell does not limit how far labels can resume execution. The 
    label can even pass control across script and function call boundaries.


    The Break keyword is used to leave the Switch construct. For example, 
    the following Switch statement uses Break statements to test for the 
    most specific condition:


        $var = "word2"
        switch -regex ($var) 
        {
            "word2" 
            {
                Write-Host "Exact" $_ 
                break
            } 

            "word.*" 
            { 
                Write-Host "Match on the prefix" $_ 
                break
            }

            "w.*"
            {
                Write-Host "Match on at least the first letter" $_
                break 
            }
            
            default
            {
                Write-Host "No match" $_
                break
            }
        }


    In this example, the $var variable is created and initialized to a string
    value of "word2". The Switch statement uses the Regex class to match the 
    variable value first with the term "word2". (The Regex class is a regular
    expression Microsoft .NET Framework class.) Because the variable value and
    the first test in the Switch statement match, the first code block in the
    Switch statement runs.


    When Windows PowerShell reaches the first Break statement, the Switch 
    statement exits. If the four Break statements are removed from the example,
    all four conditions are met. This example uses the break statement to 
    display results when the most specific condition is met. 


SEE ALSO    
    about_Comparison_Operators
    about_For
    about_Foreach 
    about_Switch
    about_While
