How to Force a Premature For-Loop Iteration

[Cyberdude]

When writing For-loops, there are times when I want to branch to the loop-terminating ?Next? statement, thereby bypassing a lot of code within the loop. A simple example might look like this:
[vba]For N=1 to 50
Cnt = Cnt + 1
If Cnt = 5 Then Goto NextN
? . . . (lots more code here)
NextN:
Next N[/vba]
In a short loop, there?s ways of writing the statements to bypass certain parts of the code, but this gets more difficult as the loop becomes longer. As a last resort, I usually use a Goto in the manner shown above. Is there a statement that might look like ?Iterate N? that can be used for this purpose?

[Bob Phillips]

Just use Exit For

[vba]

For N = 1 To 50
Cnt = Cnt + 1
If Cnt = 5 Then Exit For
' . . . (lots more code here)
Next N
[/vba]

[mdmackillop]

You could move "lots more code" into separate routines

[vba]
For n = 1 To 50
Cnt = Cnt + 1
If Cnt <> 5 Then DoStuff n
Next n
[/vba]

[geekgirlau]

Know what you mean, Cyberdude. I try to avoid the use of GoTo whenever possible, but there isn't a built-in method that I know of to branch to the next cycle of the loop. You want to continue the loop, not exit the loop altogether.

[johnske]

Use a case statement within the loop... e.g.
[VBA]
Option Explicit

Sub DoStuff()
'
Dim N As Long, Cnt As Long
'
'some code here
'
For N = 1 To 50
Cnt = Cnt + 1

Select Case Cnt
Case 1 To 4, 20 To 50
'some stuff here
Case 5
'some other stuff here
Case Else
Exit For
End Select

Next N
'
End Sub
[/VBA]

[geekgirlau]

There are ways around it, but it would be nice to have a single option that says "go to the next loop"

[Cyberdude]

geekgirlau (you MUST tell me what that means!) you win the prize for understanding what I'd like.

"Exit For" does just that. I don't want to leave the loop . . . I just want it to do the next iteration without having to execute all the code that follows.

Breaking it up into "submacros" is just too clumsy. I know I can do things like that, but a single statement ("Iterate N"??) would be simple much like the "Exit For" statement.

In any case, I think you guys answered my question. No, there isn't a statement like I want. (sigh)
Thanx gang for giving it some thought.

[johnske]

If you don't want to Exit the loop and you just want to do nothing but increase your loop index by 1 for certain values of Cnt, simply delete the Exit For in the case statement and that's exactly what'll happen.

[Bob Phillips]

I clearly mis-understood your intent in my first reply, so now that I understand, this is how I would do it

[vba]

For n = 1 To 50
Cnt = Cnt + 1
If Cnt <> 5 Then
'your stuff
'more of it
'and some more
End If
End Sub
[/vba]

similar to Malcolm, but avoiding sub-procedures, which I would only do there were functionally appropriate code to break-out, and if it improved the readability.

[geekgirlau]

[quote=Cyberdude]geekgirlau (you MUST tell me what that means!)/quote]

I'm afraid there's no deep, dark mystery here.

• I sit at a computer all day (and sometimes half the night if I win the toss with my long-suffering other half), hence the "geek";
• I'm not male (although okay, "girl" might be pushing the boundaries of credibility here given the big 4 oh looming ever closer);
• I'm an Aussie (and when I first tried to setup the handle "geekgirl" it was already taken).

[Cyberdude]

Thank you, geekgirlau. I got the geek girl part (I thought), but the suffix "au" always threw me because I tend to see it as "geekgir lau", so I thought maybe it had Hawaiian overtones. Mystery explained.
Don't sweat the "big 4 oh" ... next month I'll hit the bigger "seven 4".