Slight problem with GOTO

Phil Pendlebury · Post by **Phil Pendlebury** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:37 am

I suppose this is just me but I would be interested to hear your opinion on it:

I had a lot of confusion tonight after a slight redesign of one of my scripts.

It basically involved a GOTO command

This section was in this case skipped due to another IF>THEN

Code: Select all

Show>LWarning
Label>LWarningLoop
GetDialogAction>LWarning,l_result
IF>l_result=1,startversion4
IF>l_result=2,End
GOTO>LWarningLoop

Later in my script there is another section which was active in this case:

Code: Select all

Show>LWarning
Label>LWarningLoop
GetDialogAction>LWarning,l_result
IF>l_result=1,startversion3
IF>l_result=2,End
GOTO>LWarningLoop

What was happening was that the 2nd section GOTO>LwarningLoop was returning to the first section GOTO>LwarningLoop. Even though that section was not "active" at all.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong.

I suppose this is sloppy programming on my behalf and once I realised what was happening it was easily fixed by changing the name of Label>LWarningLoop to be slightly different in each section - Label>LWarningLoopv3 (etc.)

My programming knowledge mainly comes from BASIC. But I am am almost sure that this kind of thing should not have happened.

So, is it just sloppy code? Or is it a minor issue?

{Phil prepares for a battering}

Me_again · Post by **Me_again** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:32 am

I'll take box number one Phil, sloppy code

It's not surprising that the script was confused with the same label used twice.

Just because the first instance of the label had been bypassed by the IF> doesn't mean that a GOTO> would ignore it, it's equally likely that a script would want to GOTO> an area of the code that had been conditionally bypassed.

If you are used to GOTO in basic then usually it would be to a line number, and you couldn't duplicate those.

For better control of returns consider using subroutines.

Phil Pendlebury · Post by **Phil Pendlebury** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:36 am

Absolutely: Sloppy code indeed. I take that on the chin.

I do use Subs as well of course.

I suppose at least it shows I am not a proud man by the fact that I posted this up for you all to see.

Me_again · Post by **Me_again** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:48 am

It was your phrase, I just borrowed it

Phil Pendlebury · Post by **Phil Pendlebury** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:06 am

Me_again wrote:It was your phrase, I just borrowed it

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:39 am

Goto will always go to the first matching label. Duplicate labels is a no-no and I suppose Macro Scheduler really ought to not even let you create a duplicate label.

Phil Pendlebury · Post by **Phil Pendlebury** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:37 am

mtettmar wrote:Goto will always go to the first matching label. Duplicate labels is a no-no and I suppose Macro Scheduler really ought to not even let you create a duplicate label.

Understood.

In my laziness I expected it to go to the "nearest" matching label but of course 1st makes much more sense.