arduino - Is there a reason this break statement doesn't break out of the for loop? -

i'm going crazy. know loop entered, there must i'm doing prevents break exiting loop. ideas?

for (int j = 0; j < 12; j++) {   if (users[i][1][j] != arr[j]){     serial.println("mismatch");     break;   }   else if (j == 11){     serial.println("entire card read correctly");     return i;   } } 

for loop - break nonfunctional

the code being reentered outside loop.