Req #75036 [NEW]: Named Continue/Break

From: php at haravikk dot me Operating system: PHP version: Next Major Version Package: PHP Language Specification Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Named Continue/Break Description: ------------ So I have (somehow) managed for years to develop in PHP without ever realising that the continue keyword oddly considers a switch statement to be a looping construct. This is a very strange behaviour, and completely functionally useless, but I fear the ship has long sailed on removing it at this point. To work with switch statements in loops thus requires a numbered continue/break to ensure it applies to the correct construct, however this is a bit unwieldy and has the potential for errors if the depth of any statement changes, and for the most part it's not a very intuitive way to do it when nested structures are usually fairly simple. What I'd like to propose is that the continue and break keywords gain the ability to optionally specify a construct name. For example: <?php for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i += 1) { switch ($i) { case 5: continue for; break; } } ?> Here, PHP would encounter the presence of the "for" keyword, and use it to search for an enclosing for loop, and automatically set the continue correctly (equivalent to setting "continue 2" manually). A number can still be specified in this form, but applies only to the type of construct named. For example: <?php for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i += 1) { for ($j = 0; $j < 10; $j += 1) { switch ($j) { case 5: continue for 2; break; } } } ?> Here the continue now applies to the outer for loop, rather than the inner for loop. If I were to set this to "continue for 3", an error would occur (no more for loops). This is hopefully a bit easier to use, as it means that PHP does the actual calculation to decide what value is required to continue the correct loop type. This could be even easier if we could also leverage labels, like so: <?php outer: for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i += 1) { inner: for ($j = 0; $j < 10; $j += 1) { switch ($j) { case 5: continue outer; break; } } } ?> Here both for loops are labelled, inner and outer as appropriate, and we use the label name on the continue in order to reference the correct one. The main problem is that this is a bit more complex syntactically as the label MUST immediately precede an enclosing loop, or else PHP would not know what to do. However, this is by far the simplest/most flexible option, as it requires no counting at all by the developer, as PHP can identify which loop was meant, and continue/break it correctly. -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=75036&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75036&r=mysqlcfg