How to Solve the Unreachable Statement Error in Java

Sheeraz Gul Feb 02, 2024

Java Java Error

Cause of the unreachable statement Error in Java
Solve the unreachable statement Error in Java

How to Solve the Unreachable Statement Error in Java

This tutorial demonstrates the unreachable statement error in Java.

Cause of the `unreachable statement` Error in Java

The unreachable statement error occurs when we try to put a statement after branching control flow statements. The branching statements include break, continue, and return which are used to jump to a different part of code.

These statements are usually included in the loop to break it, skip an iteration, or return a value. When we put a code statement immediately after these branching statements, it will throw the compilation error unreachable statement.

Here are examples of the error unreachable statement using the break, continue, and return statements:

Using break:

package delftstack;

public class Unreachable_Statement {
  public static void main(String... args) {
    int[] DemoArray = {350, 780, 300, 500, 120, 1024, 1350};

    int DemoNumber = 1024;

    for (int INTEGER : DemoArray) {
      if (INTEGER == DemoNumber) {
        break;
        System.out.println("The number is: " + DemoNumber);
      }
    }
  }
}

The output for this is:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem:
    Unreachable code

    at delftstack.Unreachable_Statement.main(Unreachable_Statement.java:12)

Using continue:

package delftstack;

public class Unreachable_Statement {
  public static void main(String... args) {
    int[] DemoArray = {350, 780, 300, 500, 120, 1024, 1350};

    int DemoNumber = 1024;

    for (int INTEGER : DemoArray) {
      if (INTEGER == DemoNumber) {
        continue;
        System.out.println("The number is: " + DemoNumber);
      }
    }
  }
}

The output for this will also be the same:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem:
    Unreachable code

    at delftstack.Unreachable_Statement.main(Unreachable_Statement.java:12)

Using return:

package delftstack;

public class Unreachable_Statement {
  public static void main(String... args) {
    int[] DemoArray = {350, 780, 300, 500, 120, 1024, 1350};

    int DemoNumber = 1024;

    for (int INTEGER : DemoArray) {
      if (INTEGER == DemoNumber) {
        return;
        System.out.println("The number is: " + DemoNumber);
      }
    }
  }
}

The output is:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem:
    Unreachable code

    at delftstack.Unreachable_Statement.main(Unreachable_Statement.java:12)

Solve the `unreachable statement` Error in Java

The solution is to avoid writing any code immediately after the branching statements. See the code solution for the error raised using the break statement:

package delftstack;

public class Unreachable_Statement {
  public static void main(String... args) {
    int[] DemoArray = {350, 780, 300, 500, 120, 1024, 1350};

    int DemoNumber = 500;
    boolean FoundNumber = false;
    for (int INTEGER : DemoArray) {
      if (INTEGER == DemoNumber) {
        FoundNumber = true;
        break;
      }
    }
    if (FoundNumber) {
      System.out.println("The number is: " + DemoNumber);
    }
  }
}

We have put the statement in another if condition. The code will now work properly.

See output:

The number is: 500

Similarly, we can create a solution for continue and return statements. The rule is not to put any code immediately after the branching statements.

Author: Sheeraz Gul

Sheeraz is a Doctorate fellow in Computer Science at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, China. He has 7 years of Software Development experience in AI, Web, Database, and Desktop technologies. He writes tutorials in Java, PHP, Python, GoLang, R, etc., to help beginners learn the field of Computer Science.

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Cause of the unreachable statement Error in Java

Solve the unreachable statement Error in Java

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Cause of the `unreachable statement` Error in Java

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