The break Statement in Python

Normally, the loop ends as the testing condition fails. However, in certain scenarios, you may require ending the loop earlier e.g. if the desired task is accomplished, etc.

See the next section for the examples of using break Python statement.

A break statement example with for loop

A list of numbers is created in the example.

By using for loop, its items are displayed. However, as it reaches item with value 6, the break statement will execute and terminate the loop.

Have a look:

#A demo of break statement with for loop

lst_num = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

for x in lst_num:

    if x == 6:

        break

    print("List item: " ,x)

print("The loop terminated at item 6")

An example of using ‘break’ in the inner for loop

#A demo of break statement with for loop

lst_num = [2, 4, 6]

lst_str = ['a' ,'b', 'c']

for x in lst_num:

    print("Number item: " ,x)

    for y in lst_str:

        if y == 'c':

            break

        print(" String item: " ,y)

You can see, all items of the outer loop are entertained while the inner loop is executed three times and always terminated as it reached item ‘c’.

An example of using break with while loop

The following example shows how you may use the break statement with while loop.

#Using break with while loop example

num = 5

while num <= 30:

    if num == 25:

     break

    print (num)

    num = num + 5

The output of the program is:

A continue statement example

Just to show the difference between the break and continue statement, have a look at this example where leap years from 1992 to 2018 are displayed.

A range is created for years and used in the for loop.

For the non-leap years, the loop will omit the current iteration by using the continue statement while for the leap year, it will display the year.

Have a look:

#Demo to show difference between continue and break

for years in range(1992, 2018):



   if years % 4 == 0:

      print("Leap:", years)

      continue

Output: