What is the effect of using the `continue` statement within a loop?

The continue statement is used within loops to skip the remaining code in the current iteration and proceed directly to the next iteration of the loop. When the continue statement is encountered, the loop effectively ignores any code that follows it for that particular iteration, allowing for a new cycle to begin without executing the skipped code. This can be particularly useful in scenarios where certain conditions are met, and you want to bypass the rest of the loop's body for that specific iteration but continue iterating through the loop as a whole.

For example, in a for loop that processes a list of numbers, if there is a condition that you want to test (like skipping negative numbers), using continue will let the loop move on to the next number without executing any further statements for the current number that does not meet your criteria. This promotes cleaner and more efficient loop control in situations where not all iterations need to process in the same way based on conditions defined within the loop.