What is the purpose of the `break` statement in loops?

The break statement is used in loops to provide a mechanism for exiting the loop prematurely. When the break statement is executed, the loop terminates immediately, and control is transferred to the statement following the loop. This is particularly useful when a specific condition is met that indicates no further iterations should occur, which allows for more efficient execution when the desired outcome has already been achieved or when an exit condition is encountered.

For example, in a while or for loop, if you are searching for a specific value in a list and find it, using break enables you to stop the search once the value is found, rather than continuing to check all remaining items. This leads to improved performance and avoids unnecessary computations.