Structured programming

Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of selection (if/then/else) and repetition (while and for), block structures, and subroutines.

It emerged in the late 1950s with the appearance of the ALGOL 58 and ALGOL 60 programming languages,^[1] with the latter including support for block structures. Contributing factors to its popularity and widespread acceptance, at first in academia and later among practitioners, include the discovery of what is now known as the structured program theorem in 1966,^[2] and the publication of the influential "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" open letter in 1968 by Dutch computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra, who coined the term "structured programming".^[3]

Structured programming is most frequently used with deviations that allow for clearer programs in some particular cases, such as when exception handling has to be performed.

^ Clark, Leslie B. Wilson, Robert G.; Robert, Clark (2000). Comparative programming languages (3rd ed.). Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley. p. 20. ISBN 9780201710120. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Böhm & Jacopini 1966.
^ Dijkstra 1968, p. 147, "The unbridled use of the go to statement has as an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe the process progress. ... The go to statement as it stands is just too primitive, it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one's program."

[1] Clark, Leslie B. Wilson, Robert G.; Robert, Clark (2000). Comparative programming languages (3rd ed.). Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley. p. 20. ISBN 9780201710120. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[FOOTNOTEBöhmJacopini1966-2] Böhm & Jacopini 1966.

[FOOTNOTEDijkstra1968147-3] Dijkstra 1968, p. 147, "The unbridled use of the go to statement has as an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe the process progress. ... The go to statement as it stands is just too primitive, it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one's program."

[1]

[2]

[3]