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"continue" statement in repeat until loops??

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Posted on by MO-19112130-0

I must be doing something wrong because I cannot get the "continue" statement to work.

Maybe my understanding is wrong but in the following code I would expect the "continue" statement to continue with the next record in the inner repeat..until loop but it continues on the outer loop ????

BC version:

26.0.30643.33009

codeunit 72220 "Test"
{
procedure test()
var
items: record "Item";
i: integer;

begin
for i := 1 to 15 do
begin
items.FindSet();
repeat
if (items."No." <> '01054') then continue; // <-- This continues with "items.FindSet()" ????
Message(i.ToText());
until items.Next() = 0;
end;
end;
}

??

Is this the correct behaviour ? If so I expect a lot of weird stuff happening in BC going forward as this "continue" statement gets used :-)

According to the documentation "repeat" loops are supported ??
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-al-control-statements#continue-statement

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

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Suresh Kulla 46,918 on at

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"continue" statement in repeat until loops??

I don't think there is a good documentation how continue works in nested loops for AL, it should be applying that to the inner loop rather than outer loop.
MO-19112130-0 20 on at

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"continue" statement in repeat until loops??

Thanks for answering.

Afternoon here in Denmark btw :-)

Coming from c#, java and Golang, where "continue" works as expected I dont quite get why AL would just skip the rest of iterations in the repeat..until loop.

The reason for my suspicion was actually that a lot of my AL code in the real code base was *not* getting executed. This logic inserts data in other tables, but it did never happen, because of "continue" totally breaking out of the inner repeat..until construct.

So in the slightly modified code If I insert an http call at // HERE, will that statement never get called ?? If not then we will start seeing pretty weird behaviours in BC :-)

codeunit 72220 "Test"

{

procedure test()

var

items: record "Item";

i: integer;
begin

for i := 1 to 15 do

begin

items.FindSet();

repeat

if (items."No." <> '01054') then continue; // <-- This continues with "items.FindSet()" ????

// HERE

until items.Next() = 0;

end;

end;
Suggested answer

Holly Huffman 5,534 on at

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"continue" statement in repeat until loops??

Good morning, afternoon, or evening depending on your location!

Clarification on Behavior:
The "continue" statement in AL loops is designed to skip the current iteration and move to the next one.
However, in your case, it appears to be affecting the outer loop instead of the inner repeat..until loop.
This behavior is expected because "continue" applies to the nearest enclosing loop structure.

In your code:
repeat
    if (items."No." <> '01054') then continue; // Skips the rest of the repeat loop
    Message(i.ToText());
until items.Next() = 0;
Since the "continue" statement is inside the repeat..until loop but does not have additional logic after it, it effectively skips the rest of the loop iteration and moves to the next cycle of the outer for loop.

Possible Solutions:
To ensure that the "continue" statement only affects the inner loop, consider restructuring the logic:
Option 1: Use an Additional Condition
Modify the loop to ensure that the "continue" statement only skips the current item but does not exit the outer loop prematurely:
repeat
    if (items."No." <> '01054') then
        if items.Next() = 0 then break; // Ensures the repeat loop continues correctly
    Message(i.ToText());
until items.Next() = 0;
Option 2: Use a While Loop Instead
If restructuring the repeat..until loop does not work as expected, consider using a while loop for better control over iteration flow.
Additional References:
Microsoft has introduced "continue" support for AL loops in Business Central 2025 Wave 1 (BC26). However, there are still some nuances in how it interacts with nested loops. You can find more details in the official documentation here.

Hope this helps some!

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