What is the use of “else” after “for” loop in Python? [duplicate]

Answer 1

From the documentation:

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.

Follow the link for an example how this can be used.

Answer 2

else executes after for providing for wasn't terminated with break:

 for i in range(10):
    print i

    if (i == 8):
        break # termination, no else    
 else:
    print "after for loop"

Answer 3

This was originally enacted in order to get rid of all the "GOTO" statements in procedures without using flags: It means "NO BREAK"

for i, value in enumerate(sequence):
    if value == target:
    break
else:           #<-- if we finish the loop and did not encounter break, return -1
    return -1
return 1        #<-- if we did encounter break, return 1

You can watch Raymond Hettinger's Pycon talk that mentions the for/else construct here: Transforming Code into Beautiful, Idiomatic Python, http://pyvideo.org/video/1780/transforming-code-into-beautiful-idiomatic-pytho