Language Reference |
GOTO Statement |
The GOTO statement causes a program to jump to a new statement in the program. When the GOTO statement is executed, the program jumps immediately to the statement with the given label and begin executing statements from that point. A label is a name followed by a colon that precedes an executable statement.
GOTO statements are often clauses of IF-THEN statements. For example, the following statements use a GOTO statement to iterate until a condition is satisfied:
start Iterate; x = 1; TheStart: if x > 10 then goto TheEnd; x = x + 1; goto TheStart; TheEnd: print x; finish; run Iterate;
The function of GOTO statements is usually better performed by DO groups. For example, the preceding statements could be better written as follows:
x = 1; do until(x > 10); x = x + 1; end; print x;
As good programming practice, you should avoid using a GOTO statement that refers to a label that precedes the GOTO statement; otherwise, an infinite loop is possible. You cannot use a GOTO statement to jump out of a module; use the RETURN statement instead.
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