How to fix warning: “continue” targeting switch is equivalent to “break”

Thanks, you saved my ass dude!!

Worked! I had to roll back to 5.6 (7,1 was not enough)!
Thank you

thanks. it works.

working after downgrade to PHP 7.1 ! thanks mate !

What if your wordpress site is already running the latest version – 5.4? I tried to downgrade my php version into 7.1 but it did not work for me. Also tried version php 5.6

You just saved my live lol
thanks a lot!!

Dear All
M also faced the below error when uploading new plugin “WpDataTables” with PHP version 7.3
“Warning: “continue” targeting switch is equivalent to “break”.”

As per the guidance of this page I tried to change the PHP version.
And now it is glad to tell you that it works with PHP version 7.2 and also 7.4 but when I tried to change back to version 7.3, it again shows this error.

Conclusion: This Plugin only not compatible with PHP 7.3.

that did it ! great thx !

I had wordpress 5.4.2 and downgraded from pho7.3 to php7.0 error is now gone. Thank you!

I hate to be ‘that guy’, but this is really bad advice and I’d strongly recommend it NOT be followed. Here’s why:

If your production/live site is echoing PHP errors publicly (rather than sending them to a log file), your site is misconfigured and insecure. You should edit php.ini (or find the server maintainer who can) to turn off visible php errors.

Downgrading PHP, or WordPress, or both, to a lower, older and more insecure level in order to avoid a simple PHP warning is a dreadful idea. It’s like replacing your secure steel front door with one made out of cardboard simply because the hinges on the steel one sometimes squeak. It makes no sense.

Downgrading is not a fix. It’s bad hack that hides the problem by downgrading the entire site and server to less secure and out of date versions. Don’t do it. At some point you will be forced to upgrade and deal with the issue properly.

I admit this error is certainly a nuisance because the incorrect use of ‘continue’ in switches is used widely in some popular WordPress plugins (eg some WooCommerce extensions). For whatever reason the developers have failed to implement a very simple code fix (namely, replace ‘continue’ with ‘break’). However, the way for site admins to address the problem is:

1) Turn off visible `error_reporting` on your production sites in php.ini by making sure this line is present and enabled:

display_errors = Off

2) Send errors and warnings to eg /var/log/php error log by making sure the following settings are present and set:

log_errors = On
error_log = /path/to/php_errors.log

(You can turn off error logs if you want, but that’s probably a bad idea as you won’t be able to debug when something unexpected happens.)

3) If you don’t have control of PHP settings in php.ini, insist the server admin turns sets display_errors = Off. If they refuse, find a host who knows what they’re doing.

4) Add or set these four lines in your wp-config.php somewhere before the ‘That’s all, stop editing!’ line:

define (‘WP_DEBUG’, false);
define (‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, false);
define (‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, false);
@ini_set (‘display_errors’, 0);

(This won’t stop php errors being logged to the server logs, but will help stop errors being visible or logged to a separate log file by WordPress.)

5) If you want to prevent the “continue” error swamping your error_logs, you can try to switch off code warnings in php.ini by making sure this line is present:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_STRICT & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_WARNING

(This means, log all errors, except less important ones like code standards, notices and warnings.)

Unfortunately, these errors may still be logged due to code in your WordPress site which changes your error_reporting levels at runtime. This is an annoying habit by plugin coders.

6) Bug the plugin developers to fix their code standards.

Yeah! This the best advice! To change php for 7.1. Thx a lot!