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Oracle® OLAP DML Reference
10g Release 2 (10.2)

Part Number B14346-02
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GOTO

Within an OLAP DML program, the GOTO command alters the sequence of statement execution within a program.

Syntax

GOTO label

Arguments

label

The name of a label elsewhere in the program constructed following the "Guidelines for Constructing a Label". Execution of the program branches to the line directly following the specified label.

Note that label, as specified in GOTO, must not be followed by a colon. However, the actual label elsewhere in the program must end with a colon.

Notes

Guidelines for Constructing a Label

When you use control structures to branch to a particular location, you must provide a label for the location in order to identify it clearly. When creating a label, follow these guidelines:

Missing GOTO Label

When an actual label that corresponds to label does not exist elsewhere in the same program, execution stops with an error.

GOTO with IF and WHILE

A GOTO statement can be used with IF...THEN...ELSE Command and WHILE to set up conditional branching, using the following syntax.

IF boolean-expression

   THEN GOTO label1

   ELSE GOTO label2

However, to preserve the clarity of your programming logic, you should minimize your use of GOTO. You can often replace GOTO with one or more statements executed conditionally using FOR, IF...THEN...ELSE Command, or WHILE. You can also use a SWITCH command statement to handle different cases within the same program.

GOTO with FOR

You can use a GOTO statement in a FOR loop to branch within, or out of, the loop. This changes the sequence of statement execution, depending on where the GOTO statement and the label are positioned.

When you use a GOTO statement outside a FOR loop to branch into the loop (that is, to a label inside the loop), an error occurs after execution passes through the rest of the loop once.

TEMPSTAT and GOTO Statements

Within a FOR loop of a program, when a DO ... DOEND phrase follows TEMPSTAT, status is restored when the DOEND, BREAK, or GOTO is encountered.

Alternatives to GOTO Statement

While GOTO makes it easy to branch within a program, frequent use of it can obscure the logic of your program, making it difficult to follow its flow. This is particularly true when you have a complex program with several labels and GOTO statements that skip over large portions of code.

To keep the logic of your programs clear, minimize your use of GOTO.

Sometimes a GOTO statement is the best programming technique, but often there are better alternatives. For example:

"Using a FOR Statement for Looping Over Values" illustrates how the FOR command loops over values. "Using DO/DOEND in a FOR Loop" illustrates using DO ... DOEND within a FOR loop.

Examples

Example 16-2 Using GOTO with IF

This example shows a program that will produce a report for one of three areas, depending on what argument the user supplies when running the program. When the user specifies EAST, WEST, or CENTRAL, execution branches to a corresponding label, and the statements following it (statement group 1, 2, or 3) are executed. When the user specifies anything else, execution branches to the argerror label, after which statements will handle the error.

DEFINE flexrpt PROGRAM
PROGRAM
IF NOT INLIST('East\nWest\nCentral', UPCASE(ARG(1)))
   THEN GOTO argerror
 
SWITCH &UPCASE(ARG(1))
DO
CASE 'EAST':
   ..." (statement group 1)
   BREAK
CASE 'WEST':
   ... "(statement group 2)
   BREAK
CASE 'CENTRAL':
   ..." (statement group 3)
   BREAK
DOEND
 
argerror:
   ..." statements to handle error)
   
END