4.4. Control Structures

Normally, statements in a program execute one after the other in the order in which they’re written. This is called sequential execution. Various C++ statements we’ll soon discuss enable you to specify that the next statement to execute may be other than the next one in sequence. This is called transfer of control.

During the 1960s, it became clear that the indiscriminate use of transfers of control was the root of much difficulty experienced by software development groups. The finger of blame was pointed at the goto statement, which allows you to specify a transfer of control to one of a wide range of possible destinations in a program (creating what’s often called “spaghetti code”). The notion of so-called structured programming became almost synonymous with “goto elimination.”