Flow control statements

Flow control statements determine the next statement to execute. In this sense, the statements if-else, if, switch, while, for, and do are flow control statements. However, these statements do not allow us to determine in an arbitrary way which is the next statement to be executed. Instead they structure the program, and the execution flow is determined by the structure of the program.

Java, as other programming languages, allows us to use (though with some limitations) also jump statements. Such statements are flow control statements that cause the interruption of the execution flow and the jumping to a statement different from the successive one in the sequence of program statements.

Jump statements:

• break (jump to the statement immediately following the current loop or switch statement)
• continue (jump to the condition of the loop)

Note:

• The use of jump statements should in general be avoided. They should be used only in specific situations. We will only mention them briefly.
• Also the return statement can be used to modify the execution flow, by causing a termination of the current method activation controlled by the programmer (see Unit 3).