The for statement provides a convenient way to create a loop that does not run the risk of executing forever.

Here is an example that uses for to display the numbers from 1 to 10:

# another way to display the numbers from 1 to 10
for x in range(1,11):
	print x

Here, range(1,11) represents every number between 1 and 10. When used in a for statement, it tells Python to execute the loop once for every number in the range, assigning the number to x as it does so. In this example, when the loop is executed for the first time, x has the value 1. The second time through, x has the value 2, and so on.

As a general rule, range(a,b) includes all integers from a to b - 1. It does not include b.

	range(1,11) is an example of a list. The for statement can also be used effectively with a variety of other lists and dictionaries. For more information on lists and dictionaries, see the sections on Lists and Dictionaries.