Intro

In this article, I will raise awareness on a PLSQL feature that is too often ignored.

The CONTINUE clause in PL/SQL is a powerful control structure that allows you to skip the remaining statements in the current iteration of a loop and move directly to the next iteration.

It helps make code cleaner and avoids deeply nested IF conditions when certain cases should be ignored.

As far as I remember, this feature was introduced in Oracle 11g and it can be commonly used in LOOP, WHILE, and FOR loops.

What is the CONTINUE Clause?

In Oracle Database’s procedural language PL/SQL, the CONTINUE statement:

• Immediately proceeds to the next iteration
• Skips the rest of the loop body
• Can be used conditionally (CONTINUE WHEN); example to follow

Basic Syntax

Example 1: Simple CONTINUE in a LOOP

CONTINUE;

IN is example we would want to exclude from processing the rows with value 3:

set serveroutput on
BEGIN
  FOR i IN 1..12 LOOP
    IF i = 3 THEN
      CONTINUE;
    END IF;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Value: ' || i);
  END LOOP;
END;

returns as below and when i = 3, the CONTINUE skips printing and moves to the next iteration

Value: 1
Value: 2
Value: 4
Value: 5
Value: 6
Value: 7
Value: 8
Value: 9
Value: 10
Value: 11
Value: 12
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

Example 2: Using CONTINUE WHEN

This is a cleaner and more concise way.Code snippet example:

BEGIN
  FOR i IN 1..8 LOOP
      CONTINUE when i >6;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Value: ' || i);
  END LOOP;
END;

Only the values smaller or equal to six should be printed:

Value: 1
Value: 2
Value: 3
Value: 4
Value: 5
Value: 6
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example 3: Skipping Even Numbers

The example will skip the even numbers from processing and list all odd numbers up to 30:

BEGIN
  FOR i IN 1..30 LOOP
      CONTINUE WHEN MOD(i, 2) = 0;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Odd number==> ' || i);
  END LOOP;
END;

Odd number==> 1
Odd number==> 3
Odd number==> 5
Odd number==> 7
Odd number==> 9
Odd number==> 11
Odd number==> 13
Odd number==> 15
Odd number==> 17
Odd number==> 19
Odd number==> 21
Odd number==> 23
Odd number==> 25
Odd number==> 27
Odd number==> 29
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example 4: CONTINUE in WHILE Loop

Will stop processing when the values goes above 8:

DECLARE
  i NUMBER := 0;
BEGIN
  WHILE i < 15 LOOP
    i := i + 1;
    CONTINUE WHEN i > 8;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Value: ' || i);
  END LOOP;
END;
Output:
Value: 1
Value: 2
Value: 3
Value: 4
Value: 5
Value: 6
Value: 7
Value: 8
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example 5: Nested Loops with CONTINUE

As expected, CONTINUE statement will ‘continue’ to work within the inner loop :)

For this case, the rows where j has value 2 will be skipped from displaying (or processing):

BEGIN
  FOR i IN 1..3 LOOP
    FOR j IN 1..3 LOOP
      CONTINUE WHEN j = 2;
      DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('i=' || i || ', j=' || j);
    END LOOP;
  END LOOP;
END;

generates:

i=1, j=1
i=1, j=3
i=2, j=1
i=2, j=3
i=3, j=1
i=3, j=3
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Best Practices

Disclaimer: like with the other best practices I publish, please note that those are derived from real production examples. in case you need help, please reach out or otherwise, use at own risk!

Summary

The CONTINUE clause in PL/SQL is a simple yet powerful feature that improves:

• Code clarity
• Maintainability
• Performance (by skipping unnecessary logic)

It’s especially useful in loops where certain conditions should bypass processing without terminating the loop entirely

Also, it is great for:

• Data validation
• ETL jobs
• Bulk processing
• Error handling

Considering how important those use cases are for the modern Entreprise, I would like to see this feature used in more such cases, if not all!