Today we will learn about Python break and continue statements. In previous post, we learnt about python while loop.
Python Break and Continue
Python break and continue statements are used only in loop. It helps to modify loop behaviour. Suppose you’re executing a loop, at one phase you need to terminate the loop or skip some statements then you need these statements.
Python break
This statement is used to break the loop. Suppose you’re printing odd numbers using while loop. But you don’t need to print numbers greater than 10. Then you can write the following python code.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
number = 1 #Number is initially 1 while True : #This means the loop will continue infinite time print (number) #print the number number+=2 #calculate next odd number # Now give the breaking condition if number > 10: break; #Breaks the loop if number is greater than ten print (number) #This statement won't be executed |
Python break example output
In the given example you will see that the statement(s) that are written after break, won’t be executed. So here, 11 will not be printed.
Python break statement can be used in for loop also. Suppose you are printing words from a list. If any words that matches with “exit” won’t be printed and the loop will terminate. The following python code illustrates the idea.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
words = ["rain", "sun", "moon", "exit", "weather"] for word in words: #checking for the breaking condition if word == "exit" : #if the condition is true, then break the loop break; #Otherwise, print the word print (word) |
Python break for example
Python continue
Python continue statement is used to skip the statement of the loop and iterate to the next step. For example you’re printing number 1 to 10. You need to skip all statements at step 7. The following python code illustrates the scenario.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 |
numbers = range(1,11) ''' the range(a,b) function creates a list of number 1 to (b-1) So, in this case it would generate numbers from 1 to 10 ''' for number in numbers: #check the skipping condition if number == 7: #this statement will be executed print("7 is skipped") continue #this statement won't be executed print ("This won't be printed") #print the values #for example: #2 is double of 1 print (number*2), print ("is double of"), print (number) |
Python continue example output
Same thing you can do for while loop. Suppose, you are trying to print all the odd values from 1 to 10, then the python code which solves the problem would be:
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 |
numbers = [ 1, 2, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 10, 9 ] pos = 0 #initial position is one while pos < len(numbers): #checking skipping condition if number is divisible by two, it is even if numbers[pos] % 2 == 0 : #increment the position by one pos = pos + 1 continue #print the odd number print (numbers[pos]) #increment the position by one pos = pos + 1 |
Python continue example while loop
That’s all about python break and continue statement. Hope that you have learnt well. If you have any query about this topic, feel free to ask that in comment section.
#HappyCoding