Can you briefly explain what the break statement does?

The break statement is used to stop a loop based on certain conditions. It can be used to terminate any kind of loop—for, while, etc.

Here’s an example:

class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
            System.out.println("Hello Dhanush");
            break;
        }
    }
}

Output

Hello Dhanush

According to the for loop’s condition (i <= 10), the loop is supposed to run 10 times. But because we’ve used break right after the first print statement, the loop stops immediately after the first iteration.

Now let’s say we want to stop the loop after 5 iterations instead of immediately:

class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
            System.out.println("Hello Dhanush");

            if (i == 5) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

Output

Hello Dhanush
Hello Dhanush
Hello Dhanush
Hello Dhanush
Hello Dhanush

Here, Hello Dhanush is printed 5 times. That’s because we’ve used the condition if (i == 5) to break out of the loop when i reaches 5.

Note: break is very useful when you want to exit a loop early, without having to wait for the loop's natural condition to end. You can apply this same logic in different scenarios, like stopping a search when the target is found.