The switch statement is a flow control construct - like for or if.  Because of this continue behaves within switch like it should in any flow control contruct - it skips to the next loop of the construct.  However, switch does not loop - so continue behaves like break.

If you would like to use a continue embedded in a switch statement to continue past a loop in an outside control construct, specify how many levels you would like continue to break out of.

Try these examples to see what I mean:

<pre>
<?php
    for ($i=0; $i<5; ++$i)
    {
        switch(1)
        {
            case 1:
                continue 2;
                break;
        }

        echo "Should be skipped";
    }

    // Should not output anything

    for ($i=0; $i<5; ++$i)
    {
        for ($z=10; $z>5; --$z)
        {
            switch(1)
            {
                case 1:
                    continue 2;
                    break;
            }
            echo "\$z=$z\n";
        }
        echo "\$i=$i\n";
    }
    
    /*
        Should output:
            $i=0
            $i=1
            $i=2
            $i=3
            $i=4
    */
?>

The desired behavior is that continue is transparent to switch statements - this behavior would mimic how if handles continue statements.

You need to pass the level here:

<?php 

for($i=0; $i<5; ++$i)
{       switch(1)
   {       case 1:
             continue 2;
   }
   echo "Not printable";
}
?>

This code won't output anything. Documented issue also.

The documentation is utterly unclear about this.

See https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=69099