PL/SQL Continue

PL/SQL is a procedural language used by Oracle to write powerful database applications. One of the key aspects of PL/SQL is the ability to use the continue statement, which allows you to skip over certain parts of a loop and continue to the next iteration.

What is the continue statement?

The continue statement is a control statement used in loops that allows you to skip over a portion of code and move on to the next iteration of the loop. It is often used with conditional statements to check for certain conditions and skip over code based on those conditions.

The syntax for the continue statement in PL/SQL is as follows:

CONTINUE;

Using the continue statement in loops

The continue statement is typically used in conjunction with loops, which are structures used to repeat a block of code until a certain condition is met. For example, the following code uses a for loop to iterate over a list of numbers:

BEGIN
  FOR i IN 1..10 LOOP
    -- Check if the current iteration is even
    IF MOD(i, 2) = 0 THEN
      CONTINUE; -- Skip over even numbers
    END IF;
    
    -- Print out the odd numbers
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i);
  END LOOP;
END;

In this example, the continue statement is used to skip over even numbers and only print out odd numbers. Note that the MOD function is used to check if the current iteration is even.

Conclusion

The continue statement is a powerful tool in PL/SQL that allows you to skip over certain parts of a loop and continue to the next iteration. It is typically used with conditional statements to check for certain conditions and skip over code based on those conditions. If used correctly, it can greatly enhance the efficiency and readability of your code.