GOTO Keyword

GOTO numeric-constant

Transfers control unconditionally to the line with the given constant line number in the current program.

Remarks

Deprecated / discouraged.

Prefer structured flow control and procedures:

IF,

WHILE / ENDWHILE,

REPEAT / UNTIL,

FOR / NEXT,

and DEF PROC.../ENDPROC with PROC calls.

• The target must be a numeric constant; variables or expressions are not allowed.
• Jumps may be forward or backward within the same program.

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Examples

Forward jump

10 PRINT "Start"
20 GOTO 100
30 PRINT "This line is skipped"
100 PRINT "Landed at 100"

Simple loop with GOTO

10 I = 1
20 PRINT I
30 I = I + 1
40 IF I <= 5 THEN GOTO 20
50 PRINT "Done"

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Control-flow behaviour

GOTO performs a direct jump and does not unwind or restore any control structures.

This means you may jump:

• out of a loop (FOR, WHILE, REPEAT)
• into the body of a loop
• out of a GOSUB or PROC

Retro Rocket BASIC does not crash in these cases, but the program may later raise a runtime error if control structures no longer match the current execution state (for example, NEXT without FOR or RETURN without GOSUB).

This behaviour is defined.

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Notes

• Jumping to a non-existent line raises a runtime error.
• Heavy use of GOTO quickly reduces readability; use it only for compatibility with legacy code.

See also:
GOSUB · RETURN · DEF