Labels are not commonly used in Java, and many developers do not understand how they work. Moreover, their usage make the control flow harder to follow, which reduces the code's readability.

Noncompliant Code Example

int matrix[][] = {
  {1, 2, 3},
  {4, 5, 6},
  {7, 8, 9}
};

outer: for (int row = 0; row < matrix.length; row++) {   // Non-Compliant
  for (int col = 0; col < matrix[row].length; col++) {
    if (col == row) {
      continue outer;
    }
    System.out.println(matrix[row][col]);                // Prints the elements under the diagonal, i.e. 4, 7 and 8
  }
}

Compliant Solution

for (int row = 1; row < matrix.length; row++) {          // Compliant
  for (int col = 0; col < row; col++) {
    System.out.println(matrix[row][col]);                // Also prints 4, 7 and 8
  }
}