Skip for-Loop to Next Iteration in R (Example)
In this article you’ll learn how to stop the currently running iteration of a loop and move on to the next iteration in the R programming language.
The article consists of one example for the skipping of iterations in loops. To be more specific, the article is structured as follows:
Let’s jump right to the example.
Example: Skipping Certain Iterations of for-Loop
The following syntax illustrates how to move to the next iteration in case a certain if-statement is TRUE. Let’s first create a basic for-loop in R:
for(i in 1:10) { # Regular for-loop cat(paste("Iteration", i, "was finished.\n")) } # Iteration 1 was finished. # Iteration 2 was finished. # Iteration 3 was finished. # Iteration 4 was finished. # Iteration 5 was finished. # Iteration 6 was finished. # Iteration 7 was finished. # Iteration 8 was finished. # Iteration 9 was finished. # Iteration 10 was finished.
As you can see based on the previous output of the RStudio console, our for-loop returns the sentence “Iteration i was finished.” whenever an iteration runs until the end.
Now, let’s implement an if-condition, which sometimes stops the currently running iteration. For this task, we can use the next function as shown below:
for(i in 1:10) { # for-loop containing next function if(i %in% c(2, 5, 8)) next cat(paste("Iteration", i, "was finished.\n")) } # Iteration 1 was finished. # Iteration 3 was finished. # Iteration 4 was finished. # Iteration 6 was finished. # Iteration 7 was finished. # Iteration 9 was finished. # Iteration 10 was finished.
Compare this output with the previous output. As you can see, the iterations 2, 5, and 8 were skipped.
Note that we could apply this R code to different types of loops such as for-loops or while-loops.
Video, Further Resources & Summary
Some time ago I have published a video on my YouTube channel, which shows the R programming syntax of this article. You can find the video below.
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In addition, you might have a look at the related articles on my website:
- break & next Functions in R for-loop
- Name Variables in for-Loop Dynamically
- Print ggplot2 Plot within for-Loop
- for-Loop in R
- while-Loop in R
- Loops in R
- The R Programming Language
In summary: In this article you learned how to skip an iteration in case an if-condition is fulfilled in the R programming language. In case you have any additional questions, let me know in the comments below.