A choke is preferred to a resistor for controlling current in an AC circuit because a choke

Explanation

An inductor opposes the current through reactance rather than resistance, and because the current and voltage are a quarter cycle out of phase it consumes no net power, returning stored energy to the supply each cycle. A resistor doing the same job would waste that energy as heat. This is why fluorescent tubes are run through a choke rather than a series resistor.