View Source: GoTo - Waikato Linux Users Group

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A statement in many ProgrammingLanguage~s which causes an unconditional branch to an arbitary point in the current function or method. In a host of early [BASIC] dialects, it was the only control structure available besides <tt>if</tt> statements.

Despite being maligned in general use, GoTo is still the best way to describe FiniteStateMachine~s such as parsers in these languages.

    The apprentice uses it without thinking.
    <br> The journeyman avoids it without thinking.
    <br> The master uses it thoughtfully.

It’s also used in [C] programming a lot to provide something resembling “exceptions”, particularly “finally” clauses: a <tt>goto out</tt> where <tt>out</tt> is a label just before the final <tt>return</tt>.

See GoToStatementConsideredHarmful.

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Part of CategoryProgramming

9 pages link to GoTo:

Bison
Fortran
GoToStatementConsideredHarmful
FiniteStateMachine
JavaCompilerCompiler
ReligiousWar
BASIC
ShakespeareProgrammingLanguage
AlgolWCompiler

Last edited on Saturday, May 14, 2005 1:42:28 am by AristotlePagaltzis

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