[SlowRobotAhead]

Are there exceptions in C?

If I’m interviewing someone for a programming job and I see goto in there C code... they better have an amazing reason or they won’t be getting the job. Harsh, but it’s reality of how few people are suited for embedded programming.

[asveikau]

Standard C has no exceptions.

Goto is the typical way to handle errors without creating a hell mess of "hm, gotta close this file, free that buffer, blah blah" at every step where you might want to bail early. There are a few alternatives but none of them are better than goto and a few can be said to be worse.

[Gibbon1]

I spend a lot of time dicking with embedded C code. I think using goto is reasonable some cases. The classic case is to short circuit a block of code when there is an error of some sort.

   function(){
   
   // early returns here.

   // stuff
   // more stuff

   if(oops_err){
     goto some_error;
   }

   // yet more stuff

   // normal exit
   return 0;
   
   // bad exit
   some_error:

   // clean up

   return oops_err;
   }

The above is fine, you avoid a convoluted execution path. Or cleanup and a return in the middle of a function. Looking at the top of the function you see early returns. Looking at the end you see the normal and error exits.

[rtomayko]

This is specifically allowed in the Linux kernel coding style guidelines as well FWIW:

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/process/coding-style.h...

[someguydave]

Not only is it fine, I think it's easier to reason about the control flow with this code than with languages that support exceptions like C++.

[FpUser]

While not being a prescribed way of doing things (deservedly) goto as well as some other "obsolete" tricks sometimes can actually make sense in low level C code especially on micro-controllers.

Denying potential job to a person on a basis of generic "goto is anathema" mantra is not a good idea until one looks at the code and understands what the "offensive" part is actually doing instead of using some code analyzer/text search blindly.

[Koshkin]

Not sure what presence or absence of the goto has to do with embedded programming.

[jhomedall]

Using goto is standard for handling errors in C. It's used pervasively in the Linux kernel.