Control statements are used to change the execution flow inside loops. These include:

• break
• continue
• pass

They are most commonly used within for and while loops.

1. break Statement

The break statement is used to exit the loop prematurely, regardless of the loop’s condition.

Syntax:

for item in iterable:
   if condition:
       break
   # other statements

Example: Stop a loop when a condition is met

for i in range(1, 10):
   if i == 5:
       break
   print(i)

Output:

1
2
3
4

2. continue Statement

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

 Syntax:

for item in iterable:
   if condition:
       continue
   # this code is skipped if condition is true

Example: Skip a number

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

Output:

1
2
4
5

3. pass Statement

The pass statement does nothing. It's used as a placeholder when a statement is syntactically required but you don’t want any code to run.

Syntax:

for item in iterable:
   pass

Example:

for i in range(3):
   pass  # used when block is needed but no action is required

Used commonly during development to prevent errors in empty blocks.

Summary Table

Combined Example

for i in range(1, 6):
   if i == 2:
       continue
   elif i == 4:
       break
   else:
       print(i)

Output:

1
3

Explanation:

• 2 is skipped using continue
• 4 stops the loop with break

Practice Exercise

Task: Print numbers from 1 to 10, but skip 5 and stop if 8 is reached.

for i in range(1, 11):
   if i == 5:
       continue
   if i == 8:
       break
   print(i)

Output:

1
2
3
4
6
7