The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Multiple exits from a loop without the GOTO
Open accessAbstract
For several years, there has been discussion about the use of the goto statement in programming languages [1, 2]. It has been pointed out that goto free programs tend to be easier to understand, allow better optimization by the compiler, and are better suited for an eventual proof of correctness. On the other hand, the goto statement is a flexible tool for many programmers. Most programming languages have constructs which allow the programmer to write control flows that occur frequently without the use of a goto . In particular, the language Pascal [3] contains, besides the goto , the following control structures: if-then-else , case , while-do , repeat-until , stepping loop. Wulf [4] has described the use of the construct “ leave 〈label〉” in the language Bliss, where 〈label〉 is the name of a program section which is exited when the statement is executed. It is important to note that these constructs are invented to describe control flows that occur frequently in programs. They describe the flow on a higher level [5] than an equivalent construction using a goto would do.
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Cites
Letters to the editor: go to statement considered harmful
Dijkstra, E. W. (1968) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/362929.362947 · Cited by 1,032
Notes on Structured Programming
Dijkstra, E. W. (1970) · TU/e Research Portal · doi:10.26153/tsw/53177 · Cited by 826
The programming language pascal
Wirth, N. (1971) · Acta Informatica · doi:10.1007/bf00264291 · Cited by 720
Program proving: Jumps and functions
Clint, M., & Hoare, C. A. R. (1972) · Acta Informatica · doi:10.1007/bf00288686 · Cited by 122
Notes on avoiding “go to” statements
Knuth, D. E., & Floyd, R. W. (1971) · Information Processing Letters · doi:10.1016/0020-0190(71)90018-4 · Cited by 119
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- SIGPLAN 4. The go to controversy. Proc. ACM Ann. Conf., 1972, ACM, New York.
- Wulf, W.A. Programming without the go to. Proc. 1971 IFIP Congress, Ljubljana, Yugovlania, Aug. 1971.
- Knuth, D.E., and Floyd, R.W. Notes on avoiding "goto" statements. In Information Processing Letters 1. North-Holland Pub. Co., Amsterdam, 1971, pp. 23-31.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Exception handling: issues and a proposed notation
Goodenough, J. B. (1975) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/361227.361230 · Cited by 496
Metadata
- Authors
- Bochmann, G. V.
- Affiliations
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Bochmann, G. V.
- ORCID
- Bochmann, G. V.
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1973-07
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 443-444
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W2136587738
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2017: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 9.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Logic, programming, and type systems
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Keywords
- goto statements, control flow, Pascal, structured programming, control structures, program correctness
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- Bochmann, G. V. (1973). Multiple exits from a loop without the GOTO. Communications of the ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/362280.362300
