a labeled break outside of an if statement

[Rick Reumann]

I know you normally don't see labeled breaks outside of if statements but it came up on a test. What I don't really understand is there a purpose for them? If I try to do anything after the break you get a compile error "unreachable statement."
For example:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        boolean b = true;
        myLabel:
        if ( true ) {
            System.out.println("here");
            break myLabel;
            //System.our.println("here2");
        }
    } 
}

If you uncomment out the here2 print stmt you'll get a compile error. So my question is what is the point of ever having a labeled break in an if statement if you can't have anything after the labeled break?
[ February 02, 2002: Message edited by: Rick Reumann ]

[Valentin Crettaz]

Rick,
yeah that's somewhat weird...
You know that Java has no goto statement unlike C/C++. Such a break statement can be used to achieve the same behavior as a goto in C/C++.
The fact that the compiler objects to the unreachable statement (here2) is pretty normal since that statement is in fact unreachable.
HIH

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

NOT RECOMMENDED

class TestBreak
{
    
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
        foo:
        if ( true )
        {
            if ( true )
            {
                if ( true )
                {
                    break foo ;
                }
            }
            System.out.println( "Hi" );
        }
    }
    
}  

[Valentin Crettaz]

NOT RECOMMENDED

Right, I should have added that... Bad practice...

[Rick Reumann]

Thanks! That makes sense for breaking out of nested if statements, although I agree in practice I'd never do it.