Escaping inner loop and go to the outer loop after action is done

There is a code for the BigestCountries class.

It consists of 2 arrays:

private String[][] biggestCountries; - holds country name and the continent, e.g. biggestCountries[CHINA][COUNTRY_NAME] = "China"; biggestCountries[CHINA][COUNTRY_CONTINENT] = "Asia";
private int[][] countryData; - holds populations and year founded, e.g. countryData[CHINA][COUNTRY_POPULATION] = 1433783686; countryData[CHINA][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] = 1949;

public String[] getCountriesFoundedBetween(int min, int max){
int countriesMatched;
countriesMatched = 0;  
String[] countriesFoundedBetween;
if(biggestCountries == null || biggestCountries.length == 0){
return null;
}
for(int i = 0; i < biggestCountries.length; i++){
if(countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] >= min && countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] <= max){
System.out.println(String.format("%d %s", countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED], biggestCountries[i][COUNTRY_NAME]));
countriesMatched++;
}
}
if(countriesMatched > 0){
countriesFoundedBetween = new String[countriesMatched];
} else {
return null;
}
for(int i = 0; i < biggestCountries.length; i++) { // outer loop for countries array length of NUMBER_OF_COUNTRIES
String countryMatched = null;
System.out.println("biggestCountries[i] " + biggestCountries[i][COUNTRY_NAME]);
if(countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] >= min && countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] <= max){
for(int j = 0; j < countriesFoundedBetween.length; j++){ // how to escape inner loop?
countryMatched =  biggestCountries[i][COUNTRY_NAME];
countriesFoundedBetween[j] = countryMatched;
System.out.println("countriesFoundedBetween: " + countriesFoundedBetween[j] + "; biggestCountries[i][COUNTRY_NAME]: " + biggestCountries[i][COUNTRY_NAME]);
}      
}      
}
return countriesFoundedBetween;
}

Unfortunately, It cannot escape from the inner loop and re-writes the matched country to all rows of the newly-generated array.

The method getCountriesFoundedBetween() can be implemented differently, without the need for nested loops, as follows.

private static String[] getCountriesFoundedBetween(int min, int max) {
    if (max < min) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("'max' less than 'min'");
    }
    String[] countriesFoundedBetween;
    int countriesMatched = 0;
    int[] indexes = new int[biggestCountries.length];
    if (biggestCountries != null && biggestCountries.length > 0) {
        for (int i = 0; i < biggestCountries.length; i++) {
            if(countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] >= min &&
               countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] <= max) {
                indexes[countriesMatched++] = i;
            }
        }
        countriesFoundedBetween = new String[countriesMatched];
        for (int i = 0; i < countriesMatched; i++) {
            countriesFoundedBetween[i] = biggestCountries[indexes[i]][COUNTRY_NAME];
        }
    }
    else {
        countriesFoundedBetween = new String[0];
    }
    return countriesFoundedBetween;
}

The above code also returns an empty array rather than null which is preferable for methods that return arrays.

Here is a complete example using population to determine the biggest countries.

public class Countrys {
    private static final int  CHINA      = 0;
    private static final int  INDIA      = 1;
    private static final int  U_S_A      = 2;
    private static final int  INDONESIA  = 3;
    private static final int  PAKISTAN   = 4;
    private static final int  BRAZIL     = 5;
    private static final int  NIGERIA    = 6;
    private static final int  BANGLADESH = 7;
    private static final int  RUSSIA     = 8;
    private static final int  MEXICO     = 9;

    private static final int  COUNTRY_NAME = 0;
    private static final int  COUNTRY_CONTINENT = 1;
    private static final int  COUNTRY_POPULATION = 0;
    private static final int  COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED = 1;

    private static int[][] countryData = new int[][]{{1_427_647_786, 1949},
                                                     {1_352_642_280, 1950},
                                                     {  328_239_523, 1776},
                                                     {  273_523_615, 1945},
                                                     {  220_892_340, 1947},
                                                     {  210_147_125, 1889},
                                                     {  206_139_589, 1960},
                                                     {  164_689_383, 1971},
                                                     {  144_384_244, 1991},
                                                     {  128_932_753, 1810}};
    private static String[][] biggestCountries = new String[][]{{"China"     , "Asia"},
                                                                {"India"     , "Asia"},
                                                                {"U.S.A."    , "North America"},
                                                                {"Indonesia" , "Asia"},
                                                                {"Pakistan"  , "Asia"},
                                                                {"Brazil"    , "South America"},
                                                                {"Nigeria"   , "Africa"},
                                                                {"Bangladesh", "Asia"},
                                                                {"Russia"    , "Europe"},
                                                                {"Mexico"    , "North America"}};

    private static String[] getCountriesFoundedBetween(int min, int max) {
        if (max < min) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("'max' less than 'min'");
        }
        String[] countriesFoundedBetween;
        int countriesMatched = 0;
        int[] indexes = new int[biggestCountries.length];
        if (biggestCountries != null && biggestCountries.length > 0) {
            for (int i = 0; i < biggestCountries.length; i++) {
                if(countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] >= min &&
                   countryData[i][COUNTRY_AGE_FOUNDED] <= max) {
                    indexes[countriesMatched++] = i;
                }
            }
            countriesFoundedBetween = new String[countriesMatched];
            for (int i = 0; i < countriesMatched; i++) {
                countriesFoundedBetween[i] = biggestCountries[indexes[i]][COUNTRY_NAME];
            }
        }
        else {
            countriesFoundedBetween = new String[0];
        }
        return countriesFoundedBetween;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] result = getCountriesFoundedBetween(1950, 1980);
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(result));
    }
}

Running the above code produces the following output:

[India, Nigeria, Bangladesh]

1. If you name a Class BigestCountries still it has an attribute biggestCountries which is an array, holds information about biggest countries, I think you are not utilizing the potential of OO.
2. You can use Class to represent the data of a Country. With data encapsulation, you can get rid of nested array thus nested loop and control flow statement (break, continue etc), lookup index constant, keep sync-ing the index between biggestCountries and countryData etc.
3. Your code doing the same task twice. The first loop count the matched country and initialize a array. The second loop actually put the matched country name to the array.
4. Java collection framework provide data structure with dynamic size. I use ArrayList here
5. I think ageFound should be named yearFound?

Refactored Your code

Country.java

public class Country {
private String name;
private int population;
private int yearFound;
private String continent;
public Country(String name, String continent, int year, int population) {
this.name = name;
this.population = population;
this.continent = continent;
this.yearFound = year;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public int getPopulation() {
return population;
}
public void setPopulation(int population) {
this.population = population;
}
public String getContinent() {
return continent;
}
public void setContinent(String continent) {
this.continent = continent;
}
public int getYearFound() {
return yearFound;
}
public void setYearFound(int yearFound) {
this.yearFound = yearFound;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return "Country [name=" + name + ", population=" + population + ", yearFound=" + yearFound + ", continent="
+ continent + "]";
}
}

BiggestCountries.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
public class BiggestCountries {
private List<Country> countries = new ArrayList<Country>() {
{
add(new Country("China", "Asia", 1949, 1433783686));
add(new Country("Canada", "North America", 1867, 37590000));
add(new Country("United States", "North America", 1776, 328200000));
}
};
public List<Country> getCountriesFoundedBetween(int min, int max) {
List<Country> matchedCountry = new ArrayList<Country>();
Iterator<Country> itrCoutnry = countries.iterator();
while (itrCoutnry.hasNext()) {
Country country = itrCoutnry.next();
int yearFound = country.getYearFound();
if (min < yearFound && max > yearFound) {
matchedCountry.add(country);
}
}
return matchedCountry;
}
}

Test Run

public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Country> matchedCountries = new BiggestCountries().getCountriesFoundedBetween(1700, 1899);
System.out.println(matchedCountries);
}

Result

[Country [name=Canada, population=37590000, yearFound=1867, continent=North America], Country [name=United States, population=328200000, yearFound=1776, continent=North America]]