this code is simply wrong in supported versions

[harry@srv-rhsoft:/downloads]$ php test.php
Fatal error: 'continue' not in the 'loop' or 'switch' context in /mnt/data/downloads/test.php on line 12

[harry@srv-rhsoft:/downloads]$ php -v
PHP 7.2.7-thelounge-sandybridge (cli) (built: Jul  2 2018 19:28:18) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

and without the continue nobody knows why it is there nothing but an undefined var 

[harry@srv-rhsoft:/downloads]$ php test.php

Notice: Undefined variable: ncountp in /mnt/data/downloads/test.php on line 2

We aren't Python. Indentation is not syntax. If you write valid syntax that doesn't do what you want, that's on you.

This is a syntax issue not an indentation issue. If you execute a php statement, say an echo statement and leave of the ending ";" you will get an error like Warning expecting ";" but got ")" so php does do syntax checking. If you are a php person and care about others using this language then this type of check will help others. Personally I don't care, I'm an experienced coder in many languages and come across this stuff all the time.

It's not PHP's fault that your badly-formatted code means you misunderstand what you wrote. spam2 has already pointed out that there is a syntax error in the code you posted (the continue is not inside a loop). If the code you posted came from inside another loop then even that isn't an error.

What you wrote is syntactically identical to

for($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14)
	$ib1 = $ib + 1;

$ib2 = $ib + 2;
$ib3 = $ib + 3;
$ib4 = $ib + 4;
$ib5 = $ib + 5;
$ib6 = $ib + 6;
$ib7 = $ib + 7;
$ib8 = $ib + 8;
$ib9 = $ib + 9; 
$ib10 = $ib + 10;
$ib11 = $ib + 11; 
$ib12 = $ib + 12;
$ib13 = $ib + 13; 
if(isset($ivcarrp[$ib13]))   
{
	if($ivcarrp[$ib13] == "XX")
	{
		$bypasscnt++;
	        continue;
	}
}

Which is perfectly legitimate syntax.

Response to a at b dot c dot de. Actually the code you claim is syntactically identical to mine is not - you misplaced the For loop's opening left brace which should appear to the left of $ib12 = $ib + 12; Otherwise you describe the issue perfectly, it appears to be legitimate code BUT it is not according to PHP reference manuals. The PHP on-line manual does not indicate that the statement after the For loops three expressions needs to be enclosed in braces but all the examples below it do and so do the reference manuals. Point is that my code was written incorrectly for what it was intended to do (if it were correct we wouldn't be having this conversation) because the opening For loop Brace which I placed to the left of $ib12 = $ib + 12; should have been placed to the left of $ib1 = $ib1 + 1; therefore the For loop syntax checker should have asked where the opening brace is (it did not do that). Now high level languages are supposedly supposed to address such issues to promote "ease of use", I leave that to PHP's developers.

> Actually the code you claim is syntactically identical 
> to mine is not - you misplaced the For loop's opening 
> left brace which should appear to the left of $ib12

nonsense, he re-formatted the code how it's syntactically execued
please learn some basics, whitespaces don't matter at all in php
frankly you can remove ALL linebreaks and the syntax is the same

this is the first line no matter what you claim:
for($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14) $ib1 = $ib + 1;

"the For loop's opening left brace which should appear to the left of $ib12 = $ib + 12; "

Your for loop does not *have* an opening brace. Your entire for loop is

for  ($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14)	  
      $ib1 = $ib + 1;

The opening brace further down has syntactically nothing to do with the for() loop. I'll write it again with those braces put back:

for  ($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14)
	$ib1 = $ib + 1;

$ib2 = $ib + 2;
$ib3 = $ib + 3;
$ib4 = $ib + 4;
$ib5 = $ib + 5;
$ib6 = $ib + 6;
$ib7 = $ib + 7;
$ib8 = $ib + 8;
$ib9 = $ib + 9; 
$ib10 = $ib + 10;
$ib11 = $ib + 11; 
{
	$ib12 = $ib + 12;
	$ib13 = $ib + 13; 
	if  (isset($ivcarrp[$ib13])) {
		if  ($ivcarrp[$ib13] == "XX") {
			$bypasscnt++;
			continue;
		}
	}
}


That outermost pair of braces has nothing to do with the for loop that began and ended a dozen lines ago. It may surprise you to learn that you can put braces around statements like that without them being part of a control structure, but you can (it is often done, for example, in switch statements). In some languages (C#, Java, C) it would introduce a new scope for local variables, but PHP doesn't do block-level scoping so the braces have no significance and can therefore be dropped (as I did earlier) and the result would be identical.


"Point is that my code was written incorrectly for what it was intended to do"
You mean _you_ wrote it incorrectly.

"because the opening For loop Brace which I placed to the left of $ib12 = $ib + 12; should have been placed to the left of $ib1 = $ib1 + 1;"
That's your mistake, not PHP's.

"therefore the For loop syntax checker should have asked where the opening brace is (it did not do that)"
How is PHP supposed to magically know that there should be a brace there? It's not required by the language.

"The PHP on-line manual does not indicate that the statement after the For loops three expressions needs to be enclosed in braces but all the examples below it do and so do the reference manuals."
The manual says that the for(;;) is followed by a statement. No, it doesn't say that it has to be enclosed in braces - because it doesn't. Just because you assumed that they're necessary doesn't make the fact they aren't a bug.

It's not stated there explicitly what a statement is (any more than it's stated explicitly on the pages for while switch, or if), because it would be redundant with was already covered in the Control Structures introduction, where a whole paragraph is devoted to the subject (in fact, it's the only paragraph in the introduction). It will pay you to read it because it says what the braces are for.

finally the prove that "Actually the code you claim is syntactically identical to mine is not - you misplaced the For loop's opening left brace which should appear to the left of $ib12 = $ib + 12;" is simply nonsense when you don't write python code

the code could be formatted like the -w output because whitespaces are NOT part of the syntax - only the ; matters

php -h
-w Output source with stripped comments and whitespace

--------------------

[harry@srv-rhsoft:/downloads]$ php -w test.php
<?php
for($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14) $ib1 = $ib + 1; $ib2 = $ib + 2; $ib3 = $ib + 3; $ib4 = $ib + 4; $ib5 = $ib + 5; $ib6 = $ib + 6; $ib7 = $ib + 7; $ib8 = $ib + 8; $ib9 = $ib + 9; $ib10 = $ib + 10; $ib11 = $ib + 11; $ib12 = $ib + 12; $ib13 = $ib + 13; if(isset($ivcarrp[$ib13])) { if($ivcarrp[$ib13] == "XX") { $bypasscnt++; } }

--------------------

[harry@srv-rhsoft:/downloads]$ cat test.php
<?php
for($ib = 0; $ib < $ncountp; $ib = $ib + 14)
 $ib1 = $ib + 1;

$ib2 = $ib + 2;
$ib3 = $ib + 3;
$ib4 = $ib + 4;
$ib5 = $ib + 5;
$ib6 = $ib + 6;
$ib7 = $ib + 7;
$ib8 = $ib + 8;
$ib9 = $ib + 9;
$ib10 = $ib + 10;
$ib11 = $ib + 11;
$ib12 = $ib + 12;
$ib13 = $ib + 13;
if(isset($ivcarrp[$ib13]))
{
 if($ivcarrp[$ib13] == "XX")
 {
  $bypasscnt++;

 }
}