goto Statement (C++)

The goto statement unconditionally transfers control to the statement labeled by the specified identifier.

Syntax

goto identifier;

Remarks

The labeled statement designated by identifier must be in the current function. All identifier names are members of an internal namespace and therefore do not interfere with other identifiers.

A statement label is meaningful only to a goto statement; otherwise, statement labels are ignored. Labels cannot be redeclared.

A goto statement is not allowed to transfer control to a location that skips over the initialization of any variable that is in scope in that location. The following example raises C2362:

int goto_fn(bool b)
{
    if (!b)
    {
        goto exit;  // C2362
    }
    else
    { /*...*/ }

    int error_code = 42;

exit:
    return error_code;
}

It is good programming style to use the break, continue, and return statements instead of the goto statement whenever possible. However, because the break statement exits from only one level of a loop, you might have to use a goto statement to exit a deeply nested loop.

For more information about labels and the goto statement, see Labeled Statements.

Example

In this example, a goto statement transfers control to the point labeled stop when i equals 3.

// goto_statement.cpp
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    int i, j;

    for ( i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
    {
        printf_s( "Outer loop executing. i = %d\n", i );
        for ( j = 0; j < 2; j++ )
        {
            printf_s( " Inner loop executing. j = %d\n", j );
            if ( i == 3 )
                goto stop;
        }
    }

    // This message does not print:
    printf_s( "Loop exited. i = %d\n", i );

    stop:
    printf_s( "Jumped to stop. i = %d\n", i );
}

Outer loop executing. i = 0
Inner loop executing. j = 0
Inner loop executing. j = 1
Outer loop executing. i = 1
Inner loop executing. j = 0
Inner loop executing. j = 1
Outer loop executing. i = 2
Inner loop executing. j = 0
Inner loop executing. j = 1
Outer loop executing. i = 3
Inner loop executing. j = 0
Jumped to stop. i = 3

See also

Jump Statements
Keywords