Spaghetti code (original) (raw)

Spaghetti code is a pejorative term for code with a complex and tangled control structure, especially one using many GOTOs, exceptions, or other "unstructured" branching constructs. It is named such because program flow tends to look like a bowl of spaghetti, i.e. twisted and tangled. Nowadays it is preferable to use so-called structured programming.

Also called kangaroo code because such code has so many jumps in it.

External Links

• "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" : The classic repudiation of spaghetti code by Edsger Dijkstra

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.