What is "goto"

goto is a statement found in many computer programming languages.

Goto may also refer to:

• Goto (name), a Japanese surname, including a list of people with the name
• GoTo (telescopes), a type of telescope mount and related software
• GoTo.com, later Overture Services, Inc., a pay-for-placement Internet search service acquired by Yahoo!
• Goto-gumi, a Japanese yakuza organization
• Goto, a kind of Philippine rice congee

In places:

• Gotō, Nagasaki, a city in Japan
• Gotō Islands, Japanese islands in the East China Sea

In fictional characters:

• Goto Dengo, a character in Neal Stephenson's 1999 novel Cryptonomicon
• G0-T0, a droid in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords

In amateur astronomy, "GoTo" refers to a type of telescope mount and related software which can automatically point a telescope to astronomical objects that the user selects. Both axes of a GoTo mount are motor driven and are controlled by either a microprocessor-based integrated controller or a personal computer, as opposed to the single axis semi-automated tracking of a traditional clock drive mount. This allows the user to command the mount to point the telescope to a right ascension and declination that the user inputs or have the mount itself point the telescope to objects in a pre-programmed data base including ones from the Messier catalogue, the New General Catalogue, and even major solar system bodies (the Sun, Moon, and planets).

Like a standard equatorial mount, equatorial GoTo mounts can track the night sky by driving the right-ascension axis. Since both axes are computer controlled GoTo technology also allows telescope manufacturers to add equatorial tracking to mechanically simpler alt-azimuth telescope mounts.

is a Japanese surname. People with the name include:

• Aritomo Gotō, an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II
• Ben Goto, a documentarist and novelist
• Cassern S. Goto, an author
• Gotō Chūgai, an essayist, novelist and literary critic
• Eiichi Goto, a computer scientist
• Fumio Gotō, a politician and theoretician
• Fusanosuke Gotō, a soldier
• Hiromi Goto, a novelist
• Hirooki Goto, a professional wrestler
• Hiroyuki Goto, a game designer and noted PI reciter
• John Goto, an artist known for his photoshopped montage color photography
• Joseph Goto (1920-1994), an American sculptor
• Jūrō Gotō, a major general in the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War
• Kazushige Goto, a computer research associate noted for hand-optimized assembly routines
• Keiichirō Gotō, a photographer
• Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist
• Mai Gotō (actress), an actress and gravure idol
• Mai Goto (voice actress), a voice actress
• Maki Goto, a singer in Hello!Project
• Masafumi Gotō, a member of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung Fu Generation
• Meisei Goto, an author
• Midori Gotō, a violinist
• Gotō Mototsugu, a samurai
• Goto Nobuyasu, an elite officer in the Date clan
• Ryu Gotō, a violinist
• Saori Gotō, a voice actress
• Satoshi Goto, a voice actor
• Shoko Goto, an adult video actress
• Gotō Shinpei, a statesman
• Gotō Shōjirō, a politician and leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement
• Tadamasa Goto, a yakuza boss
• Tatsutoshi Goto, a professional wrestler
• Tetsuo Gotō, a voice actor
• Toru Goto, a freestyle swimmer
• Toshio Gotō, a director
• Goto Yujo, a 15th-century swordsman
• Yūko Gotō, a voice actress
• Yukari Goto, a member of the Japanese pop group AAA: Attack All Around

Goto (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function call normally returns control. The jumped-to locations are usually identified using labels, though some languages use line numbers. At the machine code level, a goto is a form of branch or jump statement. Many languages support the goto statement, and many do not (see language support).

The structured program theorem proved that the goto statement is not necessary to write programs; some combination of the three programming constructs of sequence, selection/choice, and repetition/iteration are sufficient for any computation that can be performed by a Turing machine, with the caveat that code duplication and additional variables may need to be introduced.

In the past there was considerable debate in academia and industry on the merits of the use of goto statements. Use of goto was formerly common, but since the advent of structured programming in the 1960s and 1970s its use has declined significantly. The primary criticism is that code that uses goto statements is harder to understand than alternative constructions. Goto remains in use in certain common usage patterns, but alternatives are generally used if available. Debates over its (more limited) uses continue in academia and software industry circles.