What does the continue operator mean in Python?

The continue operator in Python is used inside loops (for or while) and is intended to skip the current iteration of the loop and move to the next one. After executing continue, the code following it in the current iteration is ignored, and control is transferred to the beginning of the next iteration.

Example with a for loop:

# Skip even numbers
for i in range(10):
    if i % 2 == 0:
        continue  # Skip the current iteration if i is even
    print(i)

Example with a while loop:

# Skip processing when i equals 5
i = 0
while i < 10:
    i += 1
    if i == 5:
        continue  # Skip the current iteration if i is 5
    print(i)

Key features:

• Only interrupts the current iteration.
• Does not completely terminate the loop (unlike break).
• Often used in conjunction with conditional statements (if) to handle specific conditions within the loop.