Submitted by Dacadey t3_z89cro in explainlikeimfive
[deleted] t1_iyathy7 wrote
GOTO is considered an anti-pattern because it introduces non-linear control flow into a computer program - computer programs are generally written with linear control flow.
GOTO allows you to jump to any location in your program without any respect for how you got there - it's basically one-way teleportation.
Being able to teleport anywhere without respect for the structure of a given computer program allows you to do virtually anything regardless of how you got there, and, this leads to people doing a lot of weird things just because they can.
This is really the only reason why its use is considered an anti-pattern, and there's nothing wrong with using GOTO if you really know what you're doing.
Generally speaking you should stick with established well-known control flow semantics to make your program as easy to read as you can.
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