C# Basic Course Having trouble with a loop

Question

In the C# Basic Course, I'm getting a loop error: "No enclosing loop out of which to break or continue" in or around the catch statement.

Not sure what this error means or how to fix it.

Program.cs

using System;

namespace Treehouse.CodeChallenges
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
        int counter = 0;
        while (true)     
        Console.Write("Enter the number of times to print \"Yay!\": ");  
        var entry = Console.ReadLine();
              try
              { 
               int userInput = int.Parse(entry);
                 while (userInput > counter)
                 {
                 Console.WriteLine("Yay!");
                 counter = counter + 1;
                 continue;
                 }
               } //try
                   catch(FormatException)
                   {    
                   Console.WriteLine("You must enter a whole number.");
                   continue;
                   }
            Console.WriteLine("Goodbye");  
       } //static
    } //class
} //namespace

Answer 1 · 2016-10-11T19:53:03Z

October 11, 2016 7:53pm

This error is telling you that you are trying to use a continue statement outside of your while loop. The error is located in the catch block. If you look at the while block, you'll see that the it ends inside of the try block. The catch block is a new block of code and does not contain a while loop. Simply remove the continue statement from the catch block. Also, you can remove the line while(true) from the top of your code.

As a side note, here is a reply from Steven Parker to a similar question that outlines the exact requirements for that code challenge:

People often over-think this one and get too creative, and their answer is rejected for a variety of reasons (some which don't seem to make any sense).

Here are the secret "rules" you must follow for success on this one:

Your program must ask for and accept input ONE TIME ONLY If the input validates, your program will perform exactly as in Task 1 If the input does not validate, it will print the error message and exit Validation must be done by exception catching. There are other perfectly good methods that can be used for validation, but they will not pass this challenge

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Rick McNevin

Rick McNevin

C# Basic Course Having trouble with a loop

1 Answer

Benjamin Lange

Benjamin Lange