7

Say I have a nested loop, is there a way to break out of the outer loop from the inner one? For example this code:

for i in range(3)
    for j in range(5)
        echo i j
        if i == 1 && j == 2
            break
        endif
    endfor
endfor

only breaks out of the inner loop, but how could I get out of the outer one? is there a goto command?

Jake
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1 Answers1

5

There is no goto in vimscript [1]. Like most languages that lack goto, you'll need to handle this using a variable:

let breaking = 0
for i in range(3)
    for j in range(5)
        echo i j
        if i == 1 && j == 2
            breaking = 1
            break
        endif
    endfor
    if breaking
       break
    endif
endfor

You can also use j outside of the loop, although this is a bit brittle to any code changes later.

for i in range(3)
    for j in range(5)
        echo i j
        if i == 1 && j == 2
            break
        endif
    endfor
    if i == 1 && j == 2
       break
    endif
endfor

Another way to handle this is with a double loop

let Zip = {a,b -> a->mapnew({_,x -> b->mapnew({_,y -> [x, y]})})->flatten(1)}

for [i, j] in Zip(range(3), range(5))
    echo i j
    if i == 1 && j == 2
        break
    endif
endfor

Zip is quite cryptic, but just demonstrating the double for concept.

Finally, you can restructure your program to avoid the nested loop,

function! DoWork(i)
    for j in range(5)
        echo a:i j
        if a:i == 1 && j == 2
            return 1
        endif
    endfor
    return 0
endfunction

for i in range(3)
    if DoWork(i)
        break
    endif

endfor

or in vim9script,

vim9script

for i in range(3)
    if () => {
        for j in range(5)
            echo i j
            if i == 1 && j == 1
                return 1
            endif
        endfor
        return 0
    }()
        break
    endif
endfor

[1] of course, there is a goto in vim script but it definitely doesn't do what you want!

Mass
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