Java Coding standard / best practices - naming convention for break/continue labels

Question

Sometimes a labeled break or continue can make code a lot more readable.

OUTERLOOP: for ( ;/*stuff*/; ) {
    //...lots of code

    if ( isEnough() ) break         


        

Answer 1

The convention is to avoid labels altogether.

There are very, very few valid reasons to use a label for breaking out of a loop. Breaking out is ok, but you can remove the need to break at all by modifying your design a little. In the example you have given, you would extract the 'Lots of code' sections and put them in individual methods with meaningful names.

for ( ;/*stuff*/; ) 
{
    lotsOfCode();

    if ( !isEnough() )
    {
        moreCode();
    }
}

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Edit: having seen the actual code in question (over here), I think the use of labels is probably the best way to make the code readable. In most cases using labels is the wrong approach, in this instance, I think it is fine.