Is having a "break" in a "foreach" loop that is itself inside a "for" loop breaking both loops?

Questions & Answers
1

Hi dear members,

Is having a “break” in a “foreach” loop -that is itself inside a “for” loop- breaking both loops (foreach is the direct one where the “break” command is called, but foreach is itself nested in a for loop) or only the direct one (foreach)?

I get no errors, but the behavior is not EXACTLY how I intend it to be, so I am wondering if the problem can originate from how the break command behaves… I want to stop the foreach loop on break, however the for loop should go on until g<4.

Part of my code I wonder about:

for (g=1;g<4;g++)
{
    if (g == 1)
    {
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("crabtag");
    }
    else if (g == 2) {
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("turtletag");
    }
    else if (g == 3)
    {
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("jellytag");
    }

    foreach(GameObject go in gos)
    {
        if (playerposx == go.transform.position.x && playerposy == go.transform.position.y)
        {
            if (g == 1)
            {
                crabHere = true;
                break;
            }
            else if (g == 2)
            {
                turtleHere = true;
                break;
            }
            else if (g == 3)
            {
                jellyHere = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        else
        {
            if (g == 1)
            {
                crabHere = false;
            }
            else if (g == 2) 
            {
                turtleHere = false;
            } 
            else if (g == 3)
            {
                jellyHere = false;
            }
        }
    }
}
4

Just to post a clear answer to the question: no :wink:

Breaking within a loop will break only the exact loop you’re in, without considering its parents.

2

As Mike states, the code is hard to read in its current formatting and appears to be linked. As a helpful hint to the future, try to keep only one entry and one exit to every loop/method, multiple breaks and continues can render code hard to debug.

3

To answer your question: No, there is nothing wrong with the break statement.

But your code logic looks a bit weird. Try to make a dedicated method instead of series of if... else. Something like:

public enum Animal { Crab, Turtle, Jelly }

// ...

void MainMethod(Vector3 playerPosition)
{
    crabHere = CheckAnimal(Animal.Crab, playerPosition);
    turtleHere = CheckAnimal(Animal.Turtle, playerPosition);
    jellyHere = CheckAnimal(Animal.Jelly, playerPosition);
}

bool CheckAnimal(Animal animal, Vector3 playerPosition)
{
    GameObject[] gos = null;
    switch (animal)
    {
    default:
        return false;

    case Crab:
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("crabtag");
        break;

    case Turtle:
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("turtletag");
        break;

    case Jelly:
        gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("jellytag");
        break;
    }

    if (!gos || gos.Length == 0)
    {
        return false;
    }

    foreach(GameObject go in gos)
    {
        if (playerPosition.x == go.transform.position.x && playerPosition.y == go.transform.position.y)
        {
            return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

The main problems with your code were:

  1. Hard to read.

  2. Hard to debug.

  3. Float comparison as @fafase pointed out. You should consider using Mathf.Approximately or use Vector.sqrMagnitude:

    if (playerPosition - go.transform.position).sqrMagnitude < 1.0f