Break and Continue

Video Summary: https://youtu.be/HUZOfbXdDsM

There are two commands you can use to skip lines in a loop:

Break - immediately leaves the loop
Continue - skips to the start of the next iteration of the loop

These commands can be helpful if you don't want certain lines of a loop to execute with certain input, or if you got the desired information and want to move on to a different part of your program. For example, consider the following code:

In this program, when the counter reaches three, a break statement exits the loop and goes to the end program output. For any other number, it outputs the number and restarts the loop. Since the program either exit or restarts the loop, the output on line 18 will never run.

Exercise

For this exercise, you will create a program that generates a random number between 1 and 10, then enters an infinite loop. If the player is able to guess the number, it should break from the loop and congratulate the player. Otherwise, it should prompt the user for another guess. Place an output line at the bottom of the loop that will be skipped by continue like in the example above.

When you are finished, your output might look like this:

Guess a number between 1 and 10
1
Your guess is incorrect
Guess a number between 1 and 10
2
Your guess is incorrect
Guess a number between 1 and 10
3
Your guess is correct!

Solution

/*
Program name: guess.cpp
Author: Devon Blewett
Purpose: This program generates a random number, then enters an infinite loop.  The user tries to guess the number, and if they are correct the loop breaks and the program ends

Written for the Open Textbooks program
*/
#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>
using namespace std;

int main(){
    srand(time(NULL));
    int number = rand() % 10 + 1;
    int guess;
    // infinite loop 
    while(true){
        cout << "Guess a number between 1 and 10" << endl;
        cin >> guess;
        // if the guess is correct, exit the loop
        if(guess == number){
            break;
        }
        // if the guess is incorrect, restart the loop
        else{
            cout << "Your guess is incorrect" << endl;
            continue;
        }
        // this will never execute
        cout << "this line will never execute because of break and continue" << endl;
    }
    // once the loop is broken, control comes here
    cout << "Your guess is correct!" << endl;
}

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