'CONTINUE' keyword in Oracle 10g PL/SQL
For future searches, in oracle 11g they added a continue
statement, which can be used like this :
SQL> BEGIN
2 FOR i IN 1 .. 5 LOOP
3 IF i IN (2,4) THEN
4 CONTINUE;
5 END IF;
6 DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Reached on line ' || TO_CHAR(i));
7 END LOOP;
8 END;
9 /
Reached on line 1
Reached on line 3
Reached on line 5
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
In fact, PL SQL does have something to replace CONTINUE. All you have to do is to add a label (a name) to the loop :
declare
i integer;
begin
i := 0;
<<My_Small_Loop>>loop
i := i + 1;
if i <= 3 then goto My_Small_Loop; end if; -- => means continue
exit;
end loop;
end;
Though it's a bit complex and just a fake, you can use exception this way :
DECLARE
i NUMBER :=0;
my_ex exception;
BEGIN
FOR i IN 1..10
LOOP
BEGIN
IF i = 5 THEN
raise my_ex;
END IF;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (i);
EXCEPTION WHEN my_ex THEN
NULL;
END;
END LOOP;
END;
You can simulate a continue using goto and labels.
DECLARE
done BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
FOR i IN 1..50 LOOP
IF done THEN
GOTO end_loop;
END IF;
<<end_loop>> -- not allowed unless an executable statement follows
NULL; -- add NULL statement to avoid error
END LOOP; -- raises an error without the previous NULL
END;