Understanding Loop Control Statements – Break And Continue

When working with loops in Python, sometimes we need extra control over how the loop executes. By default, a loop runs until its condition becomes false, but what if:

• You want to stop the loop early?
• Or skip one iteration without breaking the loop?

That’s where loop control statements come in.

In Python, the main loop control statements are:

• break – exit the loop completely.
• continue – skip the current iteration and move to the next.
• (pass exists too, but it simply does nothing – it’s a placeholder.)

Let’s understand them with clear examples.

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The break Statement

he break statement is used to terminate the loop immediately, even if the loop condition is still true.

Example 1: Stopping at a certain value

alphabets = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]

for letter in alphabets:
    if letter == "c":
        print("Found:", letter)
        break

Output:

Found: c

👉 As soon as Python finds "c", the loop ends. "d" and "e" are not checked.

Real-Life Use Cases of break:

• Search Systems: Instagram searching for a username – stop once found.
• Login Attempts: Stop asking for password after correct entry.
• Monitoring Systems: Stop checking once threshold is reached (e.g., temperature too high).

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The continue Statement

The continue statement skips the current iteration and goes directly to the next one.

Example 2: Skipping a specific value

alphabets = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]

for letter in alphabets:
    if letter == "c":
        continue
    print("Letter:", letter)

Output:

Letter: a
Letter: b
Letter: d
Letter: e

👉 Here, "c" is skipped, but the loop continues with "d" and "e".

Real-Life Use Cases of continue:

• Skipping invalid data: If a post is flagged as spam, Instagram skips it but continues loading other posts.
• Skipping blocked users: While fetching comments, skip the blocked ones but show others.
• Data filtering: Skip unwanted entries while processing a list.

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🔹 Difference Between break and continue

Feature	break	continue
Effect	Stops the loop entirely	Skips one iteration, loop continues
Control jumps	Outside the loop	Back to loop condition for next cycle
Use case	When no further checks are needed	When some checks should be ignored

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Practice Questions (with Code)

Here are 5 important practice problems for each concept.

🟢 Break – Practice Problems

1. Stop loop when number is found

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
for n in numbers:
    if n == 3:
        print("Found:", n)
        break

2. Search for a name in a list

names = ["Amit", "Ravi", "Sneha", "John"]
for name in names:
    if name == "Sneha":
        print("Found Sneha!")
        break

3. Stop password attempts after correct entry

password = "1234"
for attempt in range(3):
    entered = input("Enter password: ")
    if entered == password:
        print("Access Granted")
        break

4. Stop at first negative number

nums = [10, 20, -5, 30, 40]
for n in nums:
    if n < 0:
        print("Negative number found:", n)
        break

5. Find prime number and stop

nums = [4, 6, 8, 11, 15]
for n in nums:
    if n % 2 != 0 and n % 3 != 0:
        print("First prime-like number:", n)
        break

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🟡 Continue – Practice Problems

1. Skip printing even numbers

for i in range(1, 6):
    if i % 2 == 0:
        continue
    print("Odd:", i)

2. Skip absent students

students = ["Amit", "Absent", "Sneha", "Ravi"]
for s in students:
    if s == "Absent":
        continue
    print("Present:", s)

3. Skip zero in division

nums = [10, 0, 5, 2]
for n in nums:
    if n == 0:
        continue
    print("Division result:", 100 / n)

4. Skip certain letters

for ch in "python":
    if ch == "o":
        continue
    print(ch)

5. Skip blocked users

users = ["Uday", "Blocked", "Codes", "Dev"]
for u in users:
    if u == "Blocked":
        continue
    print("Showing user:", u)

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Best Youtube Videos

Break, Continue, Pass – Telusko

Break, Continue – Neso Academy

Break Continue Pass in Python – Jenny’s Lectures