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5.4: Break and Continue

  • Page ID
    117552
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    Learning Objectives

    By the end of this section you should be able to

    • Analyze a loop's execution with break and continue statements.
    • Use break and continue control statements in while and for loops.

    Break

    A break statement is used within a for or a while loop to allow the program execution to exit the loop once a given condition is triggered. A break statement can be used to improve runtime efficiency when further loop execution is not required.

    Ex: A loop that looks for the character "a" in a given string called user_string. The loop below is a regular for loop for going through all the characters of user_string. If the character is found, the break statement takes execution out of the for loop. Since the task has been accomplished, the rest of the for loop execution is bypassed.

        user_string = "This is a string."
        for i in range(len(user_string)):
          if user_string[i] == 'a':
            print("Found at index:", i)
            break
    Checkpoint: Break statement in a while loop
    Infinite loop

    A break statement is an essential part of a loop that does not have a termination condition. A loop without a termination condition is known as an infinite loop. Ex: An infinite loop that counts up starting from 1 and prints the counter's value while the counter's value is less than 10. A break condition is triggered when the counter's value is equal to 10, and hence the program execution exits.

        counter = 1
        while True:
          if counter >= 10:
            break
          print(counter)
          counter += 1
    Concepts in Practice: Using a break statement
    1.
    What is the following code's output?
    string_val = "Hello World"
    for c in string_val:
      if c == " ":
        break
      print(c)
    1. Hello
  • Hello World
  • H
    e
    l
    l
    o
  • 2.
    Given the following code, how many times does the print statement get executed?
    i = 1
    while True:
      if i%3 == 0 and i%5 == 0:
        print(i)
        break
      i += 1
    1. 0
    2. 1
    3. 15
    3.
    What is the final value of i?
    i = 1
    count = 0
    while True:
      if i%2 == 0 or i%3 == 0:
        count += 1
      if count >= 5:
        print(i)
        break
      i += 1
    
    1. 5
    2. 8
    3. 30

    Continue

    A continue statement allows for skipping the execution of the remainder of the loop without exiting the loop entirely. A continue statement can be used in a for or a while loop. After the continue statement's execution, the loop expression will be evaluated again and the loop will continue from the loop's expression. A continue statement facilitates the loop's control and readability.

    Checkpoint: Continue statement in a while loop
    Concepts in Practice: Using a continue statement
    4.
    Given the following code, how many times does the print statement get executed?
    i = 10
    while i >= 0:
      i -= 1
      if i%3 != 0:
        continue
      print(i)
    
    1. 3
  • 4
  • 11
  • 5.
    What is the following code's output?
    for c in "hi Ali":
      if c == " ":
        continue
      print(c)
    
    1. h
      i
      
      A
      l
      i
    2. h
      i
      A
      l
      i
    3. hi
      Ali
    Try It: Using break control statement in a loop

    Write a program that reads a string value and prints "Found" if the string contains a space character. Else, prints "Not found".

    Try It: Using a continue statement in a loop

    Complete the following code so that the program calculates the sum of all the numbers in list my_list that are greater than or equal to 5.


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