Welcome! In this lesson, we're exploring special instructions in the Java language: Conditional Statements, along with the break and continue statements. As we've learned, loops allow us to execute a block of code numerous times. By combining these loops with conditional statements and incorporating the useful break and continue instructions, we achieve more robust and efficient code. Let's dive in!

In Java, the if statement triggers actions in our code based on a specific condition. Consider this straightforward example where the if statement determines which message to print based on the value of temperature:

We can evaluate multiple conditions using else if. This phrase means, "If the previous condition isn't true, then check this one":

We use the break statement whenever we want to exit a loop prematurely once a condition is met:

The continue statement bypasses the rest of the loop code for the current iteration only:

By utilizing the tools we've covered so far, we can craft more flexible loops. Here's a snippet where we terminate the loop once we find "Charlie":

Congratulations! You are now familiar with Java's if statement, as well as the break and continue statements and their applications in loops. We encourage you to reinforce your learning through the upcoming practice exercises. Happy coding!