How to use goto statement correctly

Question

I am taking my high school AP Computer Science class.

I decided to throw a goto statement into a one of our labs just to play around, but I got this er

Answer 1

The Java keyword list specifies the goto keyword, but it is marked as "not used".

This was probably done in case it were to be added to a later version of Java.

If goto weren't on the list, and it were added to the language later on, existing code that used the word goto as an identifier (variable name, method name, etcetera) would break. But because goto is a keyword, such code will not even compile in the present, and it remains possible to make it actually do something later on, without breaking existing code.

Answer 2

goto is an unused reserved word in the language. So there is no goto. But, if you want absurdist theater you could coax one out of a language feature of labeling. But, rather than label a for loop which is sometimes useful you label a code block. You can, within that code block, call break on the label, spitting you to the end of the code block which is basically a goto, that only jumps forward in code.

    System.out.println("1");
    System.out.println("2");
    System.out.println("3");
    my_goto:
    {
        System.out.println("4");
        System.out.println("5");
        if (true) break my_goto;
        System.out.println("6");
    } //goto end location.
    System.out.println("7");
    System.out.println("8");

This will print 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8. As the breaking the code block jumped to just after the code block. You can move the my_goto: { and if (true) break my_goto; and } //goto end location. statements. The important thing is just the break must be within the labeled code block.

This is even uglier than a real goto. Never actually do this.

But, it is sometimes useful to use labels and break and it is actually useful to know that if you label the code block and not the loop when you break you jump forward. So if you break the code block from within the loop, you not only abort the loop but you jump over the code between the end of the loop and the codeblock.