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🔀 Control Flow

Python break, continue, and pass – Loop Control Statements

break, continue, and pass are loop control statements that change the normal flow of a loop. break exits the loop completely, continue skips the rest of the current iteration and moves to the next, and pass does nothing — it's a placeholder.

⏱️ 18 min read 🎯 Beginner 📅 Updated 2026

break – Exit the Loop Immediately

break immediately terminates the innermost loop. Execution continues with the first statement after the loop.

Python
# Find first even number and stop
for num in [1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10]:
    if num % 2 == 0:
        print(f"Found first even: {num}")
        break
    print(f"{num} is odd")
print("Loop ended")
▶ Output
1 is odd 3 is odd 7 is odd Found first even: 8 Loop ended

continue – Skip to Next Iteration

continue skips the rest of the current iteration and jumps to the next one. The loop itself continues running.

Python
# Print only odd numbers
for num in range(1, 11):
    if num % 2 == 0:
        continue    # Skip even numbers
    print(num)
▶ Output
1 3 5 7 9
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pass – The No-Op Placeholder

pass does nothing. It's used when Python requires a statement syntactically but you don't want to execute anything — useful for stubs, empty classes, and empty except blocks.

Python
# Stub function during development
def calculate_tax(income):
    pass  # TODO: implement later

# Empty class
class Employee:
    pass

# Suppress specific exceptions
try:
    result = 10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError:
    pass  # We know this can happen, intentionally ignore

break and continue in Nested Loops

Important: break and continue only affect the innermost loop they are in. To break out of multiple nested loops, use a flag variable or structure your code differently.

Python
# break only exits the inner loop
for i in range(3):
    for j in range(3):
        if j == 1:
            break   # Exits inner loop only
        print(f"({i},{j})")

# Flag to break outer loop too
found = False
for i in range(5):
    for j in range(5):
        if i * j > 6:
            found = True
            break
    if found:
        break
print(f"Stopped at i={i}, j={j}")
▶ Output
(0,0) (1,0) (2,0) Stopped at i=2, j=4
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