I’m building a new version of my “Multi-Level Menu System with a Back Option.” Here’s the URL from the May 2016 post: http://tommymaynard.com/script-sharing-multi-level-menu-system-with-back-option-2016. This is a post where I wrote about creating a text based nested menu system. It was neat, but the nested Switch statements got a little confusing, and so it was never used by me, or potentially anyone else. I have no idea.

What I do know, is that a few times this past weekend I was able to work on a redesign for this menu system. The problem was this: From the main menu, you can press Q to quit. In the nested menus you either choose an option (1 through whatever), or press B to go back a menu. This means that if you’re three menus deep, you have to press B until you’re back at the main menu in order to press Q to quit. You can’t quit from a nested menu. Well, you couldn’t before this weekend, anyway.

We won’t go into the menu system for now, but I do want to leave an example of how to break out of nested loops. I seriously, learned something I’ve yet to ever see, and so maybe this will be a first for you, as well. We’ve all seen, and likely used break. You can read more at about_break using Get-Help: Get-Help -Name about_Break -ShowWindow.

In this first example, we’ll write the string “This is a test.” until we stop the loop’s execution. There’s nothing about this loop that’s ever going to make it stop without our help.

While ($true) {
    'This is a test.'
}

'This is a test.'
'This is a test.'
'This is a test.'
...

In this next example, we’ll immediately break out of the While loop by using the break statement. Prior to breaking out, we’ll write “This is a test.” to the host program, but this time, it’ll only be written once and then the execution will end.

While ($true) {
    'This is a test.'
    break
}
'This is a test.'

Let’s start our next example by nesting a While loop, inside of a While loop. In this example, we’ll write “Outer While loop” once, and then continually write “Nested While loop” until we manually end the execution. We can’t get back to the outer While loop, when we’re forever stuck in the inner While loop.

While ($true) {
    'Outer While loop'

    While ($true) {
        'Nested While loop'
    }
}
'Outer While loop'
'Nested While loop'
'Nested While loop'
'Nested While loop'
...

This next example includes a break statement inside the nested While loop. This means we’ll write “Outer While loop” and “Nested While loop” over and over, forever. We’ll at least until we stop the execution. In this example, we can get back to the outer While loop.

While ($true) {
    'Outer While loop'

    While ($true) {
        'Nested While loop'
        break
    }
}
'Outer While loop'
'Nested While loop'
'Outer While loop'
'Nested While loop'
'Outer While loop'
'Nested While loop'
...

Our final example, will include the word outer, after the break statement. In this example, we’ll execute the outer While loop, execute the inner While loop, and then break out of both of the While loops. Yes both, from inside the inner loop.

I didn’t even know this was possible before the weekend. My nested menu system is absolutely going to need this! Now, I can allow my users to quit, no matter how deep their level nestation — yes, I totally just made up that word. Enjoy, and maybe it’s helpful for you one day!

While ($true) {
    'Outer While loop'

    While ($true) {
        'Nested While loop'
        break outer
    }
}
'Outer While loop'
'Nested While loop'