GOTO Statement

The GOTO statement branches to a label unconditionally. The label must be exclusive within its scope and should precede an executable statement or a PL/SQL block. If executed, the GOTO statement transfers control to the labeled statement or block. In the following illustration, you go to an executable statement farther down in a series of statements:


BEGIN
...
GOTO insert_row;
...
<>
INSERT INTO emp VALUES...
END;


In the next illustration, you go to a PL/SQL block farther up in a series of statements:


BEGIN
...
<>
BEGIN
UPDATE emp SET ...
...
END;
...
GOTO update_row;
...
END;


The label end_loop in the example below is illegal as it does not precede an executable statement:


DECLARE
done BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
...
FOR i IN 1..50 LOOP
IF done THEN
GOTO end_loop;
END IF;
...

<> -- illegal
END LOOP; -- not an executable statement
END;


To debug the last illustration, now add the NULL statement, as shown:

FOR i IN 1..50 LOOP
IF done THEN
GOTO end_loop;
END IF;
...
<>
NULL; -- an executable statement
END LOOP;


As the following illustration shows, a GOTO statement can branch to an enclosing block from the present block:

DECLARE
my_ename CHAR(10);
BEGIN
<>
SELECT ename INTO my_ename FROM emp WHERE...
BEGIN
...
GOTO get_name; -- branch to enclosing block
END;
END;



Restrictions

Some likely destinations of a GOTO statement are illegal. Particularly, a GOTO statement cannot branch into an IF statement, LOOP statement, or sub-block. For illustration, the following GOTO statement is illegal:



BEGIN
...
GOTO update_row; -- illegal branch into IF statement
...
IF valid THEN
...
<>
UPDATE emp SET...
END IF;
END;

A GOTO statement also cannot branch from one IF statement clause to another, as the following illustration shows:


BEGIN
...
IF valid THEN
...
GOTO update_row; -- illegal branch into ELSE clause
ELSE
...
<>
UPDATE emp SET...
END IF;
END;


The next illustration shows that a GOTO statement cannot branch from an enclose block into a sub-block:


BEGIN
...
IF status = ’OBSOLETE’ THEN
GOTO delete_part; -- illegal branch into sub-block
END IF;
...

BEGIN
...
<>
DELETE FROM parts WHERE...
END;
END;


A GOTO statement also cannot branch out of a subprogram, as the following illustration shows:


DECLARE
...
PROCEDURE compute_bonus (emp_id NUMBER) IS
BEGIN
...
GOTO update_row; -- illegal branch out of subprogram
END;
BEGIN
...
<>
UPDATE emp SET...
END;


Finally, the GOTO statement cannot branch from an exception handler into the present block. For illustration, the following GOTO statement is illegal:


DECLARE
...
pe_ratio REAL;
BEGIN
...
SELECT price / NVL(earnings, 0) INTO pe_ratio FROM ...
<>
INSERT INTO stats VALUES (pe_ratio, ...);
EXCEPTION
WHEN ZERO_DIVIDE THEN
pe_ratio := 0;
GOTO insert_row; -- illegal branch into current block
END;


Though, a GOTO statement can branch from an exception handler into the enclosing block.