# Stopping Early: \`break\` and \`continue\` A loop keeps a count or a running total in a variable started before it, continue skips the rest of one pass and goes on with the next item, break leaves the loop at once, and inside ForEach-Object return skips an item instead. Apprentice · PowerShell · Updated November 10, 2026 ## After this lesson you can - Keep a count or a running total in a loop with ++ and += - Skip an item with continue and leave a loop early with break, and use return to skip one in ForEach-Object ## Key takeaways - Start a counter at 0 before the loop, then add to it inside: $count++ adds one, and $total += $minutes keeps a running total. - continue skips the rest of this pass and goes on with the next item. break leaves the loop at once. - break and continue belong to foreach, for, while and do loops. Inside ForEach-Object's braces, break stops the whole line or script. - To skip an item inside ForEach-Object, use return. You're putting together music for a 20-minute run from a longer playlist. You skip the songs you've gone off, add the rest one by one, and stop when the next song won't fit. That's a loop with two extra moves in it: skip this one, and stop here. Scripts at work make the same moves all the time: a script that sends out invoices skips the customers who've already paid and stops when it reaches the end of the month, and a log reader skips the comment lines and stops at the end marker. Make the practice folder, with the playlist as a CSV file, a spreadsheet saved as text (*Spreadsheets as Objects: `Import-Csv`*): ```powershell New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\terminal-practice\playlist" | Out-Null Set-Location "$HOME\terminal-practice\playlist" Set-Content playlist.csv @' Title,Minutes,Liked Night Launch,4,yes Static Again,6,no Solar Wind,5,yes Blue Horizon,3,yes Slow Orbit,7,yes Splashdown,4,yes '@ Import-Csv playlist.csv ``` ```text Title Minutes Liked ----- ------- ----- Night Launch 4 yes Static Again 6 no Solar Wind 5 yes Blue Horizon 3 yes Slow Orbit 7 yes Splashdown 4 yes ``` ## Counting as you go A loop often keeps score. A **counter** is a variable you start at 0 before the loop and add to inside it, the way you'd tally songs on a scrap of paper. A running total works the same way: ```powershell $count = 0 $total = 0 foreach ($song in Import-Csv playlist.csv) { $count++ $total += [int]$song.Minutes } "$count songs, $total minutes" ``` ```text 6 songs, 29 minutes ``` `$count++`, read "count plus plus", adds one. `$total += [int]$song.Minutes` adds this song's minutes; `[int]` turns them into a number, because every value `Import-Csv` reads arrives as text. Start both before the loop: set inside it, they'd go back to 0 on every pass. ## continue: skip this one `continue` skips the rest of this pass, and the loop goes on with the next item. With an `if` in front, it skips the songs you haven't liked: ```powershell foreach ($song in Import-Csv playlist.csv) { if ($song.Liked -eq 'no') { continue } $song.Title } ``` ```text Night Launch Solar Wind Blue Horizon Slow Orbit Splashdown ``` Read the first line in the braces aloud: "if this song isn't liked, go on to the next one." Static Again never reaches `$song.Title`. ## break: stop here `break` leaves the loop at once, and the script carries on with the first line after the closing brace. Here is the whole playlist builder: skip, then stop when the next song would take the total past 20 minutes: ```powershell $count = 0 $total = 0 foreach ($song in Import-Csv playlist.csv) { if ($song.Liked -eq 'no') { continue } $minutes = [int]$song.Minutes if ($total + $minutes -gt 20) { break } $total += $minutes $count++ "Added $($song.Title), $minutes minutes" } "$count songs, $total of 20 minutes" ``` ```text Added Night Launch, 4 minutes Added Solar Wind, 5 minutes Added Blue Horizon, 3 minutes Added Slow Orbit, 7 minutes 4 songs, 19 of 20 minutes ``` Splashdown would have made 23, so `break` stopped the loop before it was added, and the last line still ran. `break` and `continue` work the same way in `for`, `while` and `do` loops, from *Until Something Is True: `while`, `do` and `for`*. In a `do` loop that retries, `break` is the way out the moment it works. ![The playlist as a row of six songs: continue jumps over Static Again and the loop goes on with Solar Wind, and break stops the loop before Splashdown, which would take the total past 20 minutes, so the playlist ends after Slow Orbit with 4 songs and 19 of 20 minutes](https://fsdtrainingmedia.blob.core.windows.net/public/images/2026/11/9672060d0310421b8ac76c50ce55da68.webp) ## Not inside ForEach-Object `break` and `continue` belong to loops. ForEach-Object's braces look like a loop but are a script block handed to a command, so there `break` doesn't stop only ForEach-Object. It stops the whole line you typed, or the whole script it's in: ```powershell Import-Csv playlist.csv | ForEach-Object { if ($_.Liked -eq 'no') { break }; $_.Title }; 'Playlist done' ``` ```text Night Launch ``` `Playlist done` never printed. To skip one item inside ForEach-Object, use `return`, which ends this item's script block and lets ForEach-Object go on with the next: ```powershell Import-Csv playlist.csv | ForEach-Object { if ($_.Liked -eq 'no') { return }; $_.Title }; 'Playlist done' ``` ```text Night Launch Solar Wind Blue Horizon Slow Orbit Splashdown Playlist done ``` To stop a pipeline early, `Select-Object -First` is the safe way (*Picking Columns: `Select-Object`*). Windows PowerShell 5.1, a Mac and Linux all behave the same way here. ## Check yourself 2 questions to try on the lesson page. ## So what A counter, `continue` and `break` let one loop keep score, skip what doesn't belong and stop at the right moment: the difference between a script that does everything and one that does the right things. ## Key terms - [break](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/break-powershell) - [continue](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/continue-powershell) - [Loop Counter](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/loop-counter-powershell) - [Import-Csv](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/import-csv) ## Cheat sheets - [Stopping Early: \`break\` and \`continue\`](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-loop-control-cheat-sheet) ## Related - [For Each Thing: \`foreach\`](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-foreach-loop) - [Until Something Is True: \`while\`, \`do\` and \`for\`](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-while-and-for) - [Spreadsheets as Objects: Import-Csv](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-import-csv) - [Doing Something to Each: ForEach-Object](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-foreach-object) Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-loop-control