Is there any goto statement in java

Question

 I found that it is one of the keywords in Java. But I don't know about goto statement.

Answer 1

The Java keyword list specifies the goto keyword.

It was in the original JVM, but then removed. It was probably kept as a reserved keyword in case it was to be added to a later version of Java.

If goto gets added to the language, later on, existing code that used the word goto as an identifier (variable name, method name, etc...) would break. But because goto is a keyword, such code will not even compile in the present, and it remains possible to make it actually do something later on, without breaking existing code.

Answer 2

James Gosling created the original JVM with the support of goto statements, but then he removed this feature as needless. The main reason goto is unnecessary is that usually it can be replaced with more readable statements (like break/continue) or by extracting a piece of code into a method.

Source: James Gosling, Q&A session

Answer 3

So they could be used one day if the language designers felt the need.

Also, if programmers from languages that do have these keywords (eg. C, C++) use them by mistake, then the Java compiler can give a useful error message.

Or maybe it was just to stop programmers using goto :)