Branch Statements

Syntax

goto label;
goto *expression;
continue;
break;
return [expression];

Description

Branch statements transfer control unconditionally to another place in the executing program. The branch statements are “goto ”, “continue ”, “break ”, and “return ”.

Examples

These four fragments all accomplish the same thing (they print out the multiples of 5 between 1 and 100):

i = 0;
while (i < 100)
{
if (++i % 5)
continue; /* unconditional jump to top of while loop */
printf ("%2d ", i);
}
printf ("\n");

i = 0;
L: while (i < 100)
{
if (++i % 5)
goto L: /* unconditional jump to top of while loop */
printf ("%2d ",i);
}
printf ("\n");


i = 0;
while (1)
{
if ((++i % 5) == 0)
printf ("%2d ", i);
if (i > 100)
break; /* unconditional jump past the while loop */
}
printf ("\n");

i = 0;
while (1)
{
if ((++i % 5) == 0)
printf ("%2d ", i);
if (i > 100) {
printf ("\n");
return; /* unconditional jump to calling function */
}
}