How to Break Out of a Loop from Within a Switch Statement in C ?

Breaking Out of Loops from Within a Switch Statement

While navigating through code, situations may arise where you need to exit a loop from within a switch statement. Consider the following scenario:

<code class="cpp">while(true) {
    switch(msg->state) {
    case MSGTYPE: // ... 
        break;
    // ... more stuff ...
    case DONE:
        **HERE, break out of the loop itself**
    }
}</code>

The goal is to find an elegant way to break out of the enclosing loop without resorting to flags or conditional breaks.

A Swift Exit: Using 'goto'

In the realm of C , the 'goto' statement provides a straightforward solution. It allows you to jump to a specific label within the current function. By leveraging 'goto,' you can cleanly exit the loop from within the switch statement:

<code class="cpp">while ( ... ) {
   switch( ... ) {
     case ...:
         goto exit_loop;

   }
}
exit_loop: ;</code>

This approach offers a concise and explicit way to terminate the loop. Keep in mind that 'goto' should be used sparingly to maintain code readability. However, in certain situations, it can provide a simple and effective solution.

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