In Java, the continue keyword acts as a control statement, allowing you to interrupt the current iteration of a loop (for or while) and proceed directly to the next iteration. Statements following the continue keyword within the loop will be skipped. The syntax is as follows:

for/while (expressions) {
    // Statements 1...
    if (condition) {
        continue;
    }
    // Statements 2...
}

Example 1:

Skipping Even Numbers in a For Loop

for (int i = 1; i < 100; i++) {
    if (i % 2 == 0) {
        continue;
    }
    System.out.println(i);
}

In this example, the continue keyword is used to skip even values of the variable i, resulting in the printing of all odd numbers from 1 to 100.

Example 2:

Generating a List of Even Numbers with a While Loop

int count = 1;
while (count <= 100) {
    if (count % 2 != 0) {
        count++;
        continue;
    }
    System.out.println(count);
    count++;
}

Here, the while loop produces a list of even numbers from 1 to 100 by using the continue statement to skip odd values.

By strategically employing the continue keyword, you can control the flow of your loops to meet specific conditions and streamline your code execution.