"Continue" (to next iteration) on VBScript

One option would be to put all the code in the loop inside a Sub and then just return from that Sub when you want to "continue".

Not perfect, but I think it would be less confusing that the extra loop.


A solution I decided on involved the use of a boolean variable to track if the for loop should process its instructions or skip to the next iteration:

Dim continue

For Each item In collection
    continue = True

    If condition1 Then continue = False End If

    If continue Then
        'Do work
    End If
Next

I found the nested loop solutions to be somewhat confusing readability wise. This method also has its own pitfalls since the loop doesn't immediately skip to the next iteration after encountering continue. It would be possible for a later condition to reverse the state of continue. It also has a secondary construct within the initial loop, and requires the declaration of an extra var.

Oh, VBScript...sigh.

Also, if you want to use the accepted answer, which isn't too bad readability wise, you could couple that with the use of : to merge the two loops into what appears to be one:

Dim i

For i = 0 To 10 : Do
    If i = 4 Then Exit Do
    WScript.Echo i
Loop While False : Next

I found it useful to eliminate the extra level of indentation.


Your suggestion would work, but using a Do loop might be a little more readable.

This is actually an idiom in C - instead of using a goto, you can have a do { } while (0) loop with a break statement if you want to bail out of the construct early.

Dim i

For i = 0 To 10
    Do
        If i = 4 Then Exit Do
        WScript.Echo i
    Loop While False
Next

As crush suggests, it looks a little better if you remove the extra indentation level.

Dim i

For i = 0 To 10: Do
    If i = 4 Then Exit Do
    WScript.Echo i
Loop While False: Next

I use to use the Do, Loop a lot but I have started using a Sub or a Function that I could exit out of instead. It just seemed cleaner to me. If any variables you need are not global you will need to pass them to the Sub also.

For i=1 to N
 DoWork i
Next

Sub DoWork(i)
    [Code]
    If Condition1 Then
      Exit Sub
    End If

    [MoreCode]
    If Condition2 Then
      Exit Sub
    End If

    [MoreCode]
    If Condition2 Then
      Exit Sub
    End If

    [...]
End Sub