break and continue Statements

break

The break statement immediately terminates the nearest enclosing loop, skipping any remaining iterations.

for i in range(1, 10):
    if i == 5:
        break
    print(i)

Output:

1
2
3
4

continue

The continue statement skips the rest of the current iteration and moves to the next one — the loop itself keeps running.

for i in range(1, 10):
    if i % 2 == 0:
        continue
    print(i)

Output (only odd numbers):

1
3
5
7
9

break vs continue — visual difference

pass statement (bonus — the "do nothing" placeholder)

for i in range(5):
    if i == 3:
        pass   # placeholder — does nothing, loop continues normally
    print(i)

Example: Find the first number divisible by 7 and 5

for num in range(1, 100):
    if num % 7 == 0 and num % 5 == 0:
        print("Found:", num)
        break

Example: Print numbers 1–10 except multiples of 3

n = 0
while n < 10:
    n += 1
    if n % 3 == 0:
        continue
    print(n)

break/continue inside nested loops

break/continue only affect the innermost loop they are written in:

for i in range(3):
    for j in range(3):
        if j == 1:
            break     # breaks only the inner loop
        print(i, j)