Question

Briefly explain the use of the following elements: (i) Break (ii) Continue

Hint:

Use break to exit a loop completely and continue to skip the current iteration and continue with the next one.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understand loop control statements.
In programming languages such as Python, loop control statements are used to alter the normal execution of loops.
Two commonly used control statements are break and continue.
Step 2: Explain Break statement.
The break statement is used to terminate a loop immediately.
When the break statement is executed inside a loop, the control exits the loop and moves to the next statement after the loop.
Example:
\[ \texttt{for i in range(5):} \] \[ \texttt{\ \ if i==3:} \] \[ \texttt{\ \ \ break} \] Here the loop stops when \(i=3\).
Step 3: Explain Continue statement.
The continue statement skips the remaining part of the current iteration and moves to the next iteration of the loop.
Example:
\[ \texttt{for i in range(5):} \] \[ \texttt{\ \ if i==3:} \] \[ \texttt{\ \ \ continue} \] Here the loop skips the value \(3\) and continues with the next iteration.
Step 4: Conclusion.
Thus break stops the loop completely, while continue skips only the current iteration and proceeds to the next iteration.