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Updated on: June 6, 2021 | + 6 Comments
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In this article, you will learn how to use the
 Python Statements break , continue and pass statements when
 Python Comments working with loops in Python. We use break,
 Python Keywords continue statements to alter the loop’s execution
 Python Variables in a certain manner.

 Python Operators

 Python Data Types Statement Description

 Python Casting
Terminate the current loop. Use
 Python Control Flow statements
break the break statement to come out
 Python For Loop
of the loop instantly.
 Python While Loop

 Python Break and Continue

Skip the current iteration of a
 Python Nested Loops
continue loop and move to the next
 Python Input and Output
iteration
 Python range function

 Check user input is String or Do nothing. Ignore the condition

Number
pass in which it occurred and proceed
 Accept List as a input from user
to run the program as usual
 Python Numbers

 Python Lists Loop control statements in Python

 Python Tuples

 Python Sets The break and continue statements are part of

a control flow statements that helps you to
 Python Dictionaries
understand the basics of Python.
 Python Functions

 Python Modules

 Python isinstance() Table of contents

 Python Object-Oriented
Programming • Break Statement in Python

 Python Exceptions • Example: Break for loop in Python

 Python Exercise for Beginners • How break statement works

 Python Quiz for Beginners • Example: Break while loop

• Break Nested Loop in Python

All Python Topics • Break Outer loop in Python

• Continue Statement in Python
Python Basics Python Exercises • Example: continue statement in for
Python Quizzes
loop
Python File Handling Python OOP
• How continue statement works
Python Date and Time
• Example: continue statement in while

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loop
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• Continue Statement in Nested Loop
• Continue Statement in Outer loop
• Pass Statement in Python

Break Statement in Python

The break statement is used inside the loop to
exit out of the loop. In Python, when a break
statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop
is immediately terminated, and the program
control transfer to the next statement following
the loop.

In simple words, A break keyword terminates the

loop containing it. If the break statement is used
inside a nested loop (loop inside another loop), it
will terminate the innermost loop.

For example, you are searching a specific email

inside a file. You started reading a file line by line
using a loop. When you found an email, you can
stop the loop using the break statement.

We can use Python break statement in both for

loop and while loop. It is helpful to terminate the
loop as soon as the condition is fulfilled instead of
doing the remaining iterations. It reduces
execution time.

Syntax of break :

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break  Learn Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

Break loop in Python

Let us see the usage of the break statement with

an example.

Example: Break for loop in

Python

In this example, we will iterate numbers from a list

using a for loop, and if we found a number
greater than 100, we will break the loop.

Use the if condition to terminate the loop. If the

condition evaluates to true, then the loop will
terminate. Else loop will continue to work until
the main loop condition is true.

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 =Learn
numbers [10,Python
40, 120,  Exercises
230]  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks
for i in numbers:
if i > 100:
break
print('current number', i)

   Run

Output:

curret number 10
curret number 40

Note: As you can see in the output, we got

numbers less than 100 because we used the
break statement inside the if condition (the
number is greater than 100) to terminate the loop

How break statement works

We used a break statement along with if

statement. Whenever a specific condition occurs
and a break statement is encountered inside a
loop, the loop is immediately terminated, and the
program control transfer to the next statement
following the loop.

Let’s understand the above example iteration by

iteration.

• In the first iteration of the loop, 10 gets

printed, and the condition i > 100 is
checked. Since the value of variable i is 10,
the condition becomes false.

• In the second iteration of the loop, 20 gets

printed again, and the condition i > 100 is
checked. Since the value of i is 40, the
condition becomes false.

• In the third iteration of the loop, the

condition i > 100 becomes true, and the
break statement terminates the loop

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Example: Break
 Learn while
Python  loop
Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

We can use the break statement inside a while

loop using the same approach.

Write a while loop to display each character from

a string and if a character is a space then
terminate the loop.

Use the if condition to stop the while loop. If the

current character is space then the condition
evaluates to true, then the break statement will
execute and the loop will terminate. Else loop will
continue to work until the main loop condition is
true.

name = 'Jesaa29 Roy'

size = len(name)
i = 0
# iterate loop till the last character
while i < size:
# break loop if current character is space
if name[i].isspace():
break
# print current character
print(name[i], end=' ')
i = i + 1

   Run

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Flow chart of a break statement

Break Nested Loop in Python

To terminate the nested loop, use a break

statement inside the inner loop. Let’s see the
example.

In the following example, we have two loops, the

outer loop, and the inner loop. The outer for loop
iterates the first 10 numbers using the range()
function, and the internal loop prints the
multiplication table of each number.

But if the current number of both the outer loop

and the inner loop is greater than 5 then
terminate the inner loop using the break
statement.

Example: Break nested loop

for i in range(1, 11):

print('Multiplication table of', i)
for j in range(1, 11):
# condition to break inner loop

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if i > 5 and j > 5:
 Learn Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks
break
print(i * j, end=' ')
print('')

   Run

Break Outer loop in Python

To terminate the outside loop, use a break

statement inside the outer loop. Let’s see the
example.

In the following example, we have two loops, the

outer loop, and the inner loop. The outer loop
iterates the first 10 numbers, and the internal
loop prints the multiplication table of each
number.

But if the current number of the outer loop is

greater than 5 then terminate the outer loop
using the break statement.

Example: Break outer loop

for i in range(1, 11):

# condition to break outer loop
if i > 5:
break
print('Multiplication table of', i)
for j in range(1, 11):
print(i * j, end=' ')
print('')

   Run

Continue Statement in
Python
The continue statement skip the current
iteration and move to the next iteration. In
Python, when the continue statement is

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encountered inside the loop, it skips all the
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statements below it and immediately jumps to
the next iteration.

In simple words, the continue statement is used

inside loops. Whenever the continue statement
is encountered inside a loop, control directly
jumps to the start of the loop for the next
iteration, skipping the rest of the code present
inside the loop’s body for the current iteration.

In some situations, it is helpful to skip executing

some statement inside a loop’s body if a
particular condition occurs and directly move to
the next iteration.

Syntax of continue :

continue

Let us see the use of the continue statement

with an example.

Python continue statement in loop

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Example: continue
 Learn Python statement
 Exercises in
 Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

for loop

In this example, we will iterate numbers from a list

using a for loop and calculate its square. If we
found a number greater than 10, we will not
calculate its square and directly jump to the next
number.

Use the if condition with the continue

statement. If the condition evaluates to true, then
the loop will move to the next iteration.

numbers = [2, 3, 11, 7]

for i in numbers:
print('Current Number is', i)
# skip below statement if number is greater than 10
if i > 10:
continue
square = i * i
print('Square of a current number is'

   Run

Output:

Current Number is 2
Square of a current number is 4
Current Number is 3
Square of a current number is 9
Current Number is 11
Current Number is 7
Square of a current number is 49

Note: As you can see in the output, we got

square of 2, 3, and 7, but the loop ignored
number 11 because we used the if condition to
check if the number is greater than ten, and the
condition evaluated to true, then loop skipped
calculating the square of 11 and moved to the
next number.

How continue statement works

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We used the continue statement along with the
 Learn Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks
if statement. Whenever a specific condition
occurs and the continue statement is
encountered inside a loop, the loop immediately
skips the remeaning body and move to the next
iteration.

Flow chart of a continue statement

Let’s understand the above example iteration by

iteration.

• In the first iteration of the loop, 4 gets

printed, and the condition i > 10 is
checked. Since the value of i is 2, the
condition becomes false.

• In the second iteration of the loop, 9 gets

printed, and the condition i > 10 is
checked. Since the value of i is 9, the
condition becomes false.

• In the third iteration of the loop, the

condition i > 10 becomes true, and the
continue statement skips the remaining
statements and moves to the next iteration

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of the loop
 Learn Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks
• In the second iteration of the loop, 49 gets
printed, and the condition i > 10 is
checked. Since the value of i is 7, the
condition becomes false.

Example: continue statement in

while loop

We can also use the continue statement inside a

while loop. Let’s understand this with an example.

Write a while loop to display each character from

a string and if a character is a space, then don’t
display it and move to the next character.

Use the if condition with the continue statement

to jump to the next iteration. If the current
character is space, then the condition evaluates
to true, then the continue statement will
execute, and the loop will move to the next
iteration by skipping the remeaning body.

name = 'Je sa a'

size = len(name)
i = -1
# iterate loop till the last character
while i < size - 1:
i = i + 1
# skip loop body if current character is space
if name[i].isspace():
continue
# print current character
print(name[i], end=' ')

   Run

Output:

J e s a a

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Continue Statement
 Learn Python inExercises
Nested  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks

Loop

To skip the current iteration of the nested loop,

use the continue statement inside the body of
the inner loop. Let’s see the example.

In the following example, we have the outer loop

and the inner loop. The outer loop iterates the
first 10 numbers, and the internal loop prints the
multiplication table of each number.

But if the current number of the inner loop is

equal to 5, then skip the current iteration and
move to the next iteration of the inner loop using
the continue statement.

Example: continue statement in nested loop

for i in range(1, 11):

print('Multiplication table of', i)
for j in range(1, 11):
# condition to skip current iteration
if j == 5:
continue
print(i * j, end=' ')
print('')

   Run

Continue Statement in Outer loop

To skip the current iteration of an outside loop,

use the continue statement inside the outer
loop. Let’s see the example

In the following example, The outer loop iterates

the first 10 numbers, and the internal loop prints
the multiplication table of each number.

But if the current number of the outer loop is

even, then skip the current iteration of the outer
loop and move to the next iteration.

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Note: If we skip the current iteration of an outer
 Learn Python  Exercises  Quizzes  Code Editor  Tricks
loop, the inner loop will not be executed for that
iteration because the inner loop is part of the
body of an outer loop.

Example: continue statement in outer loop

for i in range(1, 11):

# condition to skip iteration
# Don't print multiplication table of even numbers
if i % 2 == 0:
continue
print('Multiplication table of', i)
for j in range(1, 11):
print(i * j, end=' ')
print('')

   Run

Pass Statement in Python

The pass is the keyword In Python, which won’t
do anything. Sometimes there is a situation in
programming where we need to define a
syntactically empty block. We can define that
block with the pass keyword.

A pass statement is a Python null statement.

When the interpreter finds a pass statement in
the program, it returns no operation. Nothing
happens when the pass statement is executed.

It is useful in a situation where we are

implementing new methods or also in exception
handling. It plays a role like a placeholder.

Syntax of pass statement:

for element in sequence:

if condition:
pass

Example

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months= Learn Python 'June',
['January',  Exercises
'March',  Quizzes
'April'  Code Editor  Tricks
for mon in months:
pass
print(months)

   Run

Output

['January', 'June', 'March', 'April']

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