Goto
A programming statement that forwards a user to a different section of the program. Below is a basic example of how a goto may be used in Perl.
use strict;
start:
print "Please type your password: ";
my $password = <STDIN>;
if ($password =~ /secret/i) { print "Success"; }
else { goto start; }
In the above example, when the program is run, it would continue to prompt the user for a password until he or she enters secret as the password. This is done by creating a label called "start:" at the beginning of the script, if the user does not enter secret as their password, then the user is referred back to the start label using the goto statement and this will continue to loop until properly entered.
Tip: Although a goto statement is an easy method of moving through a program, it is commonly considered bad practice to use goto statements excessively in your programs because it creates difficult to read code, commonly known as spaghetti code. However, in some cases, a goto may be the only option or the best solution. We feel that it is best left to the programmer to decide when and when not to use the goto statement and stay away from the endless debate of using or not using goto statements in your code.
- Additional information about the MS-DOS and Windows command line goto command can be found on our goto command page.
Also see: Control flow, Loop, Programming definitions