From: Wayne Conrad <wconrad@...>
Date: 2001-10-22T05:15:10+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:22896] Re: Possible RCR? - break <n> for nested loops

On Sun, 21 October 2001, Wayne Vucenic wrote:
> 
> ...  We could change "break" to
> optionally allow an integer argument n, so "break <n>" would break out
> of n enclosing loops.  ...
> 
> for i in 0..5
>     for j in 5..8
>         if i == j
>             break 2
>         end
>     end
> end

Wayne, Great name! :)

For that example, I think throw & catch read clearer, because I don't have to count (I'm a lousy counter).  I like this better even though the additional block adds some noise:

catch (:done) do
  for i in 0..5
    for j in 5..8
      if i == j
        throw :done
      end
    end
  end
end

This is very similar to a Java labeled break.

More readable would be a Pascal-style goto, but I do not propose adding Pascal-style goto's to Ruby -- I can imagine many difficulties implementing them, and not a whole lot of problems they would solve better than exceptions & catch/throw do.

    Wayne Conrad