Is GOTO in PHP evil? [closed]

Answer 1

Are guns evil? Both can be used for good or for evil. I would say it was easier to write good code without goto, than with.

Answer 2

I used GOTO when I write script for working under cli mode. It save my life.

Answer 3

As a software engineer, i mostly work on "mainframes" and "big corporate servers"... And our daily language (I mean the one in 95% of our base code) is Cobol, which uses extensively GOTOs.

This usage doesn't mean the code is bad. It just means that this tool (GOTO) was the right one at the moment programs were written.

To answer Kaitsuli's question, I think it can be useful tool when writing PHP scripts. On the other hand, a lot of scripts were achieved without it for almost a decade by now. Furthermore, it goes against PHP's evolution with more object-oriented features.

IMHO, it's nor good nor a bad thing for the code be produced : good programs will still be good and "horror programs" will be worse... The only question is : "Why adding GOTOs 10 years after proving it was not necessary ?".

Answer 4

I'm in the minority (currently), but I believe the restrictions placed on PHP's goto construct make a very beneficial tool:

http://adamjonrichardson.com/2012/02/06/long-live-the-goto-statement/

I actually walk through an example of arrow code (deeply nested conditionals) and refactor it using standard practices (guard clauses, grouping conditions, pulling out functions) in one version and a goto-based version in the other version, and I actually prefer the goto-based refactoring.

Answer 5

Any language feature that can make code more readable in a given situation is A Good Thing. GOTO is one such language feature, even if those situations are few and far between. If we forbade any syntax that made it possible for poor programmers to write bad, unmaintainable code our jobs would be an awful lot harder.

Answer 6

I think this is the most important part of the PHP manual page and missing here:

This is not a full unrestricted goto. The target label must be within the same file and context, meaning that you cannot jump out of a function or method, nor can you jump into one. You also cannot jump into any sort of loop or switch structure. You may jump out of these, and a common use is to use a goto in place of a multi-level break.

IMHO this makes it very different from the ye olde BASIC style gotos.