Control Flow

The control flow is the path of execution through a program.

Related concepts:  SequenceConditionalLoop

Closest Wikipedia entry:  Control flow — In computer science, control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which individual statements, instructions or function calls of an imperative program are executed or evaluated. The emphasis on explicit control flow distinguishes an imperative programming language from a declarative programming language. Within an imperative programming language, a control flow statement is a statement that results in a choice being made as to which of two or more paths to follow.

Misconceptions about Control Flow

34 documented Misconceptions

CatchAlwaysExecutes

Catch blocks always get executed

CatchProvidesOptions

Only the necessary part of a catch block executes

ConditionOneOutEdge

A condition node in a control-flow graph can have a single outgoing edge

ConditionalIsSequence

If-else is equivalent to sequence of two ifs

DeferredReturn

A return statement in the middle of a method doesn't return immediately

ElsIf

There is an elsif keyword for multi-way conditional statements

ElseAlwaysExecutes

The else branch of an if-else statement always executes

ForIsConditional

The body of a for statement executes at most once

IfIsLoop

The body of an if statement executes repeatedly, as long as the condition holds

IfRequiresElse

Every if statement requires an else

InterproceduralEdge

In an intra-procedural control-flow graph, method call nodes point to the called method

LoopTerminatingCondition

For and while loops end when the condition becomes true

NoShortCircuit

&& and || always evaluate both operands

PreIncrementBeforeLoop

Pre-increment in update part of for loop means increment before loop body

RecursiveMethodNeedsIfElse

A recursive method needs to contain an if-else statement

ReturnNoOutEdge

In a control-flow graph, a return statement has no outgoing edge

StatementMultipleOutEdges

A non-condition node in a control-flow graph can have multiple outgoing edges

TryCatchMandatory

If code could throw an exception, you must surround that code with a try/catch block

TryFinishes

Exceptions get thrown at the end of the try block

ZeroInEdges

A control-flow graph node (other than the entry node) can have zero incoming edges

ZeroOutEdges

A control-flow graph node (other than the exit node) can have zero outgoing edges