breaking from each closure

[Pradeep bhatt]

I am doing some calculation by iterating though a loop.

list.each{

}

When some condition to exit from loop . Having break statement is giving me a compile error.

[Peter Ledbrook]

Hi,

The only way I know of to break out of a closure loop like this is to throw an exception - not an elegant solution I'm afraid. Even using the return statement won't help because it exits the closure, but not the each() method.

The usual solution is either to use a more appropriate iterator method, such as find(), or use a standard for loop:

for (item in list) {
    if (item.size() == 0) break
}

Cheers,

Peter

[Dave Klein]

Just to tack onto Peter's reply: I've yet to run into a situation where I couldn't come up with a better solution using more intelligent filtering instead of a break. So, yes, you can use a traditional Java loop with break but the exercise of trying to go without it may help you write better code.

Dave

[Pradeep bhatt]

Well, actually I was using eachWithIndex. Now I would need to use the Java's enhanced for loop and also declare an integer as I need index or use the traditional for loop. Back to basics.

[Marc Peabody]

Hi Prad, if you find yourself wanting to use a break statement in an iteration method in Groovy, there's a really good chance you could benefit by using a different iteration method (like find or any).

If you post your code I can help you find the most appropriate method.