Is it ever advantageous to use 'goto' in a language that supports loops and functions? If so, why?

Question

I've long been under the impression that `goto` should never be used if possible. While perusing libavcodec (which is written in C) the other day, I noticed multiple uses of it. Is it ever advantageous to use `goto` in a language that supports loops and functions? If so, why?

Answer 1

It can sometimes be faster to use goto in some circumstances, and it is easier to write programs that use functions such as goto, break, etc. But goto makes code very hard to read and follow. For this reason, using goto is generally frowned upon and not best coding practice. In short there is never a time when you should write a goto statement because there is a way to do the same thing in a much cleaner, and easier to follow way.

Answer 2

IMO, about the only relatively acceptable use is for a 'goto loopbottom' for a language that doesn't have a keyword such as 'break' when it is determined that the current iteration of a loop is complete. It's a cleaner method than setting an amIDone flag and having to test it repeatedly. It would not be needed in a function unless it was one that is not meant to return a value. Otherwise, you just do the return to exit it prematurely.