The break statement in Python is used to exit a loop prematurely when a certain condition is met. Once the break statement is encountered, the loop stops immediately, and the program continues with the next statement after the loop.

Example:

Let’s say you have a loop that prints numbers from 1 to 10, but you want to stop the loop when the number 5 is reached.

for i in range(1, 11):
    if i == 5:
        break  # Exit the loop when i is 5
    print(i)

Explanation:

• The loop starts with i being 1 and goes up to 10.
• When i reaches 5, the if condition i == 5 becomes True.
• The break statement is executed, and the loop is terminated.
• Only the numbers 1 to 4 are printed because the loop stops when i is 5.

Output:

1
2
3
4

In this example, the break statement prevents the loop from continuing once i equals 5.