很好的回答是:

这就解释了历史，而且 这就赋予了 引用以简化您的翻译/理解。

我在这里的注释来自Donald Knuth曾经说过(抱歉找不到参考)，有一个结构，其中while-else与if-else无法区分，即(在Python中):

x = 2
while x > 3:
    print("foo")
    break
else:
    print("boo")

具有相同的流程(不包括低级别差异):

x = 2
if x > 3:
    print("foo")
else:
    print("boo")

关键是if-else可以被认为是while-else的语法糖，它在if块的末尾有隐含的break。相反的含义是，while循环是if的扩展，更常见(它只是重复/循环的条件检查)，因为if经常在while之前教授。然而，这不是真的，因为这将意味着else块在while-else每次当condition为false时执行。

为了便于理解，可以这样想:

没有break, return等，循环只在condition不再为真时结束，在这种情况下else块也将执行一次。在Python for的情况下，你必须考虑c风格的for循环(带条件)或将它们转换为while。

另注:

循环中的过早中断、返回等使得condition不可能变为false，因为当condition为true时，执行跳出了循环，并且它永远不会再回来检查它。

我把它读成这样:“当可迭代对象完全耗尽时，在完成for语句后，执行即将继续执行下一个语句，else子句将被执行。”因此，当迭代被break打断时，这将不会执行。

一个循环的else分支只执行一次，不管这个循环是否进入它的循环体，除非循环体已经进入但没有结束。也就是说，在循环中会遇到break或return语句。

my_list = []
for i in my_list:
    print(i, end=',')
else:
    print('loop did not enter')

##################################    

for i in range(1,6,1):
    print(i, end=',')
else:
    print('loop completed successfully:', i)

##################################    

for i in range(1,6,1):
    if i == 3:
        print('loop did not finish:', i)
        break
    print(i, end=',')
else:
    print('else:', i)

输出:

loop did not enter
1,2,3,4,5,loop completed successfully: 5
1,2,loop did not finish: 3

while-else也是一样的。

import random
random.seed(8)

i = 100
while i < 90:
    print(i, end=',')
    i = random.randint(0,100)
else:
    print('loop did not enter:', i)

##################################    

i = 25
while i < 90:
    print(i, end=',')
    i = random.randint(0,100)
else:
    print('loop completed successfully:', i)

##################################    

i = 25
while i < 90:
    if i % 10 == 0:
        print('loop did not finish:', i)
        break
    print(i, end=',')
    i = random.randint(0,100)
else:
    print('else:', i)

输出:

loop did not enter: 100
25,29,47,48,16,24,loop completed successfully: 90
25,5,loop did not finish: 10

我是这样读的:

如果还在运行循环的条件下，做点别的，否则做点别的。

else语句块中的代码将在for循环未被打破时执行。

for x in xrange(1,5):
    if x == 5:
        print 'find 5'
        break
else:
    print 'can not find 5!'
#can not find 5!

来自文档:break和continue语句，以及循环中的else子句

Loop statements may have an else clause; it is executed when the loop terminates through exhaustion of the list (with for) or when the condition becomes false (with while), but not when the loop is terminated by a break statement. This is exemplified by the following loop, which searches for prime numbers: >>> for n in range(2, 10): ... for x in range(2, n): ... if n % x == 0: ... print(n, 'equals', x, '*', n//x) ... break ... else: ... # loop fell through without finding a factor ... print(n, 'is a prime number') ... 2 is a prime number 3 is a prime number 4 equals 2 * 2 5 is a prime number 6 equals 2 * 3 7 is a prime number 8 equals 2 * 4 9 equals 3 * 3 (Yes, this is the correct code. Look closely: the else clause belongs to the for loop, not the if statement.) When used with a loop, the else clause has more in common with the else clause of a try statement than it does that of if statements: a try statement’s else clause runs when no exception occurs, and a loop’s else clause runs when no break occurs. For more on the try statement and exceptions, see Handling Exceptions. The continue statement, also borrowed from C, continues with the next iteration of the loop: >>> for num in range(2, 10): ... if num % 2 == 0: ... print("Found an even number", num) ... continue ... print("Found a number", num) Found an even number 2 Found a number 3 Found an even number 4 Found a number 5 Found an even number 6 Found a number 7 Found an even number 8 Found a number 9

下面是一种我从未见过其他人提到过的思考方法:

首先，请记住for循环基本上只是while循环的语法糖。例如，循环

for item in sequence:
    do_something(item)

可以重写(大约)为

item = None
while sequence.hasnext():
    item = sequence.next()
    do_something(item)

其次，记住while循环基本上只是重复if块!你总是可以把while循环读成“如果这个条件为真，执行body，然后回来再次检查”。

因此while/else非常有意义:它与if/else结构完全相同，只是增加了循环直到条件变为false的功能，而不是只检查一次条件。

然后for/else也非常有意义:因为所有的for循环都只是while-循环之上的语法糖，你只需要弄清楚底层while-循环的隐式条件是什么，然后else对应于当条件变为False时。