Python break Statement With Examples

In this tutorial you’ll learn about break statement in Python which is used inside a for loop or while loop to terminate the loop when break statement is executed. When break statement is encountered inside a loop control comes out of the loop and the next statement after the loop is executed.

Common use of break statement is to use it along with some condition in the loop using if statement. When the condition is true the break statement is executed resulting in termination of the loop.

Break statement when used in nested loops results in the termination of the innermost loop in whose scope it is used.

break statement Python examples

1- Using break statement with for loop in Python. In the example a tuple is iterated using a for loop to search for a specific number as soon as that number is found you need to break out of for loop.

numbers = (89, 102, 0, 234, 67, 10, 333, 32)
flag = False
for num in numbers:
    if num == 10:
        flag = True
        break
if flag:
    print('Number found in tuple')
else:
    print('Number not found in tuple')

Output

Number found in tuple

As you can see here break statement is used inside for loop to break out of loop when the condition is satisfied. Note that searching for an element in a tuple can be done in a more compact way like given below, above example is more of an illustration of break statement.

if searched_num in numbers:
    print('Number found in tuple')
else:
    print('Number not found in tuple')

2- Using break statement in Python with while loop. In the example there is an infinite while loop that is used to prompt user for an input. Condition here is that entered number should be greater than 10 to break out of while loop otherwise prompt user again to enter valid input.

while True:
   num = int(input("Enter a number greater than 10: "))
   # condition for breaking out of loop
   if num > 10:
       break
   print("Please enter a number greater than 10...")

print("Entered number is", num)

Output

Enter a number greater than 10: 7
Please enter a number greater than 10...
Enter a number greater than 10: 11
Entered number is 11

3- In this example we’ll see how to use break statement with nested loops. There are 2 for loops in the example and break statement is used in the scope of inner for loop so it breaks out of that loop when the condition is true.

for i in range(1, 6):
    print(i, "- ", end='')
    for j in range(1, 10):
        print('*', end='')
        # print only 5 times then break
        if j >= 5:
            break
    # move to next line now
    print()

Output

1 - *****
2 - *****
3 - *****
4 - *****
5 - *****

As you can see though the range of inner loop is (1..10) but it breaks out when j’s value is 5 because of the break statement. The end='' used in print statement ensures that the cursor doesn’t move to next line after printing in each iteration.

That's all for this topic Python break Statement With Examples. If you have any doubt or any suggestions to make please drop a comment. Thanks!

>>>Return to Python Tutorial Page

---

Related Topics

1. Python continue Statement With Examples
2. pass Statement in Python
3. Python assert Statement
4. Python First Program - Hello World
5. Python String split() Method

You may also like-

1. Name Mangling in Python
2. Inheritance in Python
3. Class And Object in Python
4. Python Generator, Generator Expression, Yield Statement
5. Java Variable Types With Examples
6. Ternary Operator in Java With Examples
7. How to Convert Date And Time Between Different Time-Zones in Java
8. Spring Constructor Based Dependency Injection