SyntaxError: continue must be inside loop

The JavaScript exception "continue must be inside loop" occurs when a {{jsxref("Statements/continue", "continue")}} statement is not inside a loop statement.

Message#

SyntaxError: Illegal continue statement: no surrounding iteration statement (V8-based)
SyntaxError: Illegal continue statement: 'label' does not denote an iteration statement (V8-based)
SyntaxError: continue must be inside loop (Firefox)
SyntaxError: 'continue' is only valid inside a loop statement. (Safari)
SyntaxError: Cannot continue to the label 'label' as it is not targeting a loop. (Safari)

Error type#

{{jsxref("SyntaxError")}}.

What went wrong?#

{{jsxref("Statements/continue", "continue")}} statements can be used to continue a loop, and using them elsewhere is a syntax error. Alternatively, you can provide a label to the continue statement to continue any loop with that label — however, if the label does not reference a containing statement, another error SyntaxError: label not found will be thrown, and if the label references a statement that is not a loop, a syntax error is still thrown.

Examples#

Using continue in callbacks#

If you want to proceed with the next iteration in a {{jsxref("Array/forEach", "forEach()")}} loop, use {{jsxref("Statements/return", "return")}} instead, or convert it to a {{jsxref("Statements/for...of", "for...of")}} loop.

```js-nolint example-bad array.forEach((value) => { if (value === 5) { continue; // SyntaxError: continue must be inside loop } // do something with value });

```js example-good
array.forEach((value) => {
  if (value === 5) {
    return;
  }
  // do something with value
});

js example-good for (const value of array) { if (value === 5) { continue; } // do something with value }

See also#

• {{jsxref("Statements/continue", "continue")}}