GO TO Statement

GO TO Statement

GO TO statement is used to transfer control to another part of the program, allowing the program to "jump" to a different paragraph or section.

Points to Note -

  • It is a PROCEDURE DIVISION statement and should be coded in Area-B.
  • If It is not the last in the sequence of statements, the statements after GO TO won't execute.

Different ways of using GO TO statement are -

  • Unconditional
  • Conditional

Unconditional GO TO -

Unconditional GO TO transfers the control unconditionally to another part of the program. It transfers control to the first statement in the paragraph or section coded with GO TO.

Syntax -

GO TO paragraph-1.

Parameters -

  • paragraph-1 - Specifies a paragraph or sections where the control should transfer.

Examples -

Scenario - Passing control to a END-PARA.

Full Example    
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
BEGIN-PARA.
    DISPLAY 'Start'.
    GO TO END-PARA.
    DISPLAY 'This will be skipped'.
	STOP RUN.
END-PARA.
    DISPLAY 'End'.

Output -

Start
End

Conditional GO TO -

Conditional GO TO statement transfers control to the paragraph or section based on the DEPENDING ON the value of the variable (ws-variable).

Syntax -

GO TO paragraph-1[,paragraph-2,...]
     DEPENDING ON ws-variable.

Parameters -

  • paragraph-1[,paragraph-2,...] - Specifies a paragraph or sections where the control should transfer.
  • DEPENDING ON ws-variable - Specifies the paragraph number to where the control should transfer. If the value is 1, the control will transferred to the first statement in paragraph-1. If the value is 2, the control will transfer to the first statement in paragraph-2 and so on.

    No control transfer occurs if the value is other than a value range of 1 through n (where n is the number of paragraphs coded in GO TO statement). Instead, control passes to the next statement in the normal sequence of execution.

Examples -

Scenario - GO TO DEPENDING ON.

Full Example    
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
PARA-0.
    DISPLAY 'Para0'.
	MOVE 3      TO WS-P
    GO TO PARA-1 PARA-2 DEPENDING ON WS-P.
    DISPLAY 'This will be skipped'.
	STOP RUN.
PARA-1.
    DISPLAY 'Para1'.
PARA-2.
    DISPLAY 'Para2'.
PARA-3.
    DISPLAY 'Para3'.

Output -

Para0
Para3

GO TO with IF Statement -

GO TO statement not advised to use individually. But, it is advised to use with conditional statements like IF and EVALUATE.

Examples -

Scenario - GO TO with IF.

Full Example    
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
PARA0.
    DISPLAY 'Para0'.
	MOVE 3      TO WS-P
    PERFORM PARA1
	   THRU PARA1-EXIT.
    DISPLAY 'Return to para0'.
	STOP RUN.
PARA1.
    DISPLAY 'Para1'.
	IF WS-P > 1
	   GO TO PARA1-EXIT
	ELSE
	   COMPUTE WS-P = WS-P + 1
	END-IF.
	DISPLAY 'WS-P: ' WS-P.
PARA1-EXIT.
    EXIT.

Output -

Para0
Para1
Return to para0