Re: goto... is it so bad?
Sushrut Sardeshmukh wrote:
I recently found goto used in a tiny part of (very large C / C++ mix)
code base.
I realized that I have never seen goto before (except college time).
I was so hammered about so called bad effect of goto that I never used
it myself. Nor I thought if it is really so bad. (Since I have never
really seen / used goto, I have not faced any bad effects of it)
I threw this question into my work place group. Only one argument came
up. And it said 'it makes code unreadable'
1. Is it really so bad to use goto?
No. It has its place when you find yourself trying to contort other
control structures that don't quite fit what you want to do.
Does any one supports / use it?
I regularly use it, probably more than anyone else I know. If you want a
sample of it in professional code, see
http://ftp.digitalmars.com/dmd.zip and grep for goto in /dmd/src/dmd/
2. If goto is so bad, then why C++ still supports it?
Probably because of curmudgeons like me who keep using it <g>. Yes, D
has a goto statement, too. Note even if one has religious zeal against
gotos, for machine generated source code having it is pretty handy.
May be to
maintain compatibility with 'C'. In that case, compiler should give
out a warning, right?
It's not like anyone types 'goto Label;' by accident. If you really want
to scan for them, using "grep" will do just fine. I've been called on
the carpet by QA folks several times for using goto's they found by
using grep. Fun always ensues <g>.
3. For every place where goto was used, there were better ways to plan
the code in the code base I discussed above. But ......is there any
situation where goto is must?
One place I use it is in switch statements:
switch (x)
{ case 1:
case 2:
... do some code ...
goto Ldefault;
case 3:
... do some code ...
goto Lcase_5;
case 4:
... do some code ...
Lcase_5:
case 5:
... do some code ...
break;
Ldefault:
default:
... do some code ...
break;
}
In fact, I do it often enough that "goto default" and "goto case expr"
are part of the D programming language's switch statement:
switch (x)
{ case 1:
case 2:
... do some code ...
goto default;
case 3:
... do some code ...
goto case 5;
case 4:
... do some code ...
case 5:
... do some code ...
break;
default:
... do some code ...
break;
}
Other common uses:
1) multilevel breaks.
2) combining block exit cleanup code
3) combining common error exits
4) avoiding reformatting/reorganizing a large block of code to do a
minor edit
5) machine generated source
6) state machines
etc.
Bottom line:
1) yes, it is possible to rewrite every use of goto with some
combination of other structures. Whether the result is better or worse
is up to you, the programmer.
2) if you use goto, be prepared to defend each use of it when the QA
folks or your boss asks you about it.
3) if the guy who signs your paycheck has a thing about not using gotos,
you'd be well advised to not use them <g>.
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