What is the purpose of the Step statement in a loop?

The purpose of the Step statement in a loop is to change the increment value, which dictates how the loop counter is updated during each iteration of the loop. In programming, particularly within languages that support structured loops (such as Visual Basic), the Step statement allows you to define the amount by which the loop variable increases or decreases with each iteration.

For example, if you have a loop that is designed to count from 1 to 10 and you want the counter to increase by 2 each time instead of the default increment of 1, you would use the Step statement to specify this increment. This flexibility enables various looping behaviors, making it easier to control the number of times the loop runs and how quickly it progresses towards its termination condition.

In the context of the other options, the start of the loop is typically defined separately at the beginning of the loop structure, the limit for the loop is set by conditions that determine when the loop should stop, and the termination of the loop is typically handled by a different statement or condition, such as an exit statement or the loop’s end condition.