Python From Scratch #28 - break and continue

Python From Scratch #28 - break and continue

Learn how to stop a loop early or skip an iteration using break and continue.

Shefali Jangid

Oct 26

Hey 👋

In the last lesson, we learned about while loops and how they repeat code while a condition is True.

But sometimes, you don’t want a loop to continue normally.

You may want to:

• stop the loop completely

• skip the current iteration and continue with the next one

That’s where break and continue come in.

The break Statement

The break statement stops a loop immediately.

For example:

for number in range(1, 11):
    if number == 5:
        break

    print(number)

# Output:

# 1
# 2
# 3
# 4

When number becomes 5, the if condition becomes True.

The break statement then stops the loop.

The numbers after 5 are never printed.

How It Works

The loop starts normally:

1 → print
2 → print
3 → print
4 → print
5 → break

Once break runs, Python exits the loop completely.

break With a while Loop

You can also use break inside a while loop.

number = 1

while number <= 10:
    if number == 5:
        break

    print(number)
    number += 1

# Output:

# 1
# 2
# 3
# 4

Even though the loop condition is number <= 10 the loop stops when number reaches 5 because of break.

A Common while True Pattern

Yesterday, we saw that an infinite loop can happen when the condition of a while loop never becomes False.

But an infinite loop isn’t always a mistake.

A very common pattern is to intentionally use while True and then use break when you want to stop the loop.

For example:

while True:
    answer = input("Type 'exit' to quit: ")

    if answer == "exit":
        break

    print("You typed:", answer)

Here, while True means the loop will keep running.

The loop only stops when the user types "exit".

When that happens, this condition becomes True:

if answer == "exit":

Then break stops the loop.

Yesterday, we treated infinite loops as something to avoid. But while True combined with break is actually a common, intentional pattern. It keeps running until a specific condition inside the loop tells it to stop.

You’ll see this pattern often when building programs that need to keep asking for input until the user chooses to quit.

The continue Statement

The continue statement works differently.

Instead of stopping the whole loop, it skips the current iteration and moves to the next one.

For example:

for number in range(1, 6):
    if number == 3:
        continue

    print(number)

# Output:

# 1
# 2
# 4
# 5

When number is 3, continue skips the rest of that iteration.

The loop then continues with 4.

How It Works

1 → print
2 → print
3 → skip
4 → print
5 → print

The loop itself doesn’t stop.

Only that particular iteration is skipped.

break vs continue

The easiest way to remember the difference:

Statement                 What it does
 break                Stops the entire loop
 continue             Skips the current iteration

What About Nested Loops?

A loop can also be placed inside another loop. This is called a nested loop.

When you use break or continue inside nested loops, they only affect the innermost loop they’re written in.

For example, if a for loop is inside another for loop, a break inside the inner loop stops the inner loop, not the outer one.

Example: Skip Even Numbers

We can use continue to skip numbers we don’t want.

for number in range(1, 11):
    if number % 2 == 0:
        continue

    print(number)

# Output:

# 1
# 3
# 5
# 7
# 9

Here, % gives us the remainder.

If the remainder is 0, the number is even, so continue skips it.

Example: Stop When You Find a Number

You can use break when you want to stop searching after finding something.

for number in range(1, 11):
    if number == 7:
        print("Found it!")
        break

    print(number)

# Output:

# 1
# 2
# 3
# 4
# 5
# 6
# Found it!

Once 7 is found, the loop stops.

Try It Yourself

Now, a small exercise for you.

Try these:

• Write a for loop from 1 to 10. Use break to stop the loop when the number reaches 5.

• Write a for loop from 1 to 10. Use continue to skip the number 5.

• Use continue to print only the odd numbers from 1 to 10.

That’s all for today!

Tomorrow, we’ll learn about else with loops and see how it works differently from the else you’ve already used with if statements.

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See you tomorrow ✨

- Shefali

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