Ruby Block Examples and Their Relationship with Break, Next and Return

Here's some examples on the use of some keywords to exit from or otherwise alter the behaviour of ruby blocks.

Note that, although I'm using Array iterators (like each), this is in no way restricted to those an can be used with other iterators like while, for, until and so on.

Using break with no parameters

Just breaks out of the block, returns nothing

foo = [1,2,3,4,5].each do |element|
    if (element * 2) == 8
        break
    end
end

puts foo # prints nil

Using break with a parameter

Yes, you can also use break with an argument. In that case, it returns that parameter from the block:

foo = [1,2,3,4,5].each do |element|
    if (element * 2) == 8 
        break element
    end
end

puts foo # prints 4

Using next

Calling next causes the iterator to skip to the next iteration directly. The second if gets skipped and the result is just the array itself (i.e., nothing was returned from the block).

foo = [1,2,3,4,5].each do |element|
    if (element * 2) == 8 
        next
    end

    if element * 2 == 8
        break element # this is never reached
    end 
end

puts foo # prints [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Using return

This causes the method this block lives in to return.

def bar
    foo = [1,2,3,4,5].each do |element|
        if (element * 2) == 8
            return element
        end 
    end

    puts foo # this is never reached
end

puts bar # prints 4

• P.S.: Examples run on ruby version 2.1