Which statement is used to skip the execution of the current iteration and start the next iteration in a loop?

Answer Details

Loops repeat a block of instructions, and sometimes a program needs to skip the remaining instructions for one particular pass through the loop without stopping the loop entirely. The continue statement does exactly this: when it is reached, the program immediately jumps back to the loop's condition check and begins the next iteration, skipping any code that comes after it within that pass.

For example, in a loop that processes numbers from 1 to 10 and needs to skip even numbers, a continue statement placed inside a condition that detects an even number would move straight to the next number without executing the remaining instructions for that particular value. This is different from a statement that would stop the loop altogether, since the continue statement only skips the current pass and allows the loop to carry on with the next one. "Skip statement," "jump statement," and "next statement" are not the recognised keywords used in mainstream programming languages for this behaviour.

Examination reminder: continue skips the rest of the current iteration and moves to the next one, while break would end the loop completely; these two are commonly confused in examinations.