Jump

A jump (alternative term branch) is an instruction which causes a program to continue execution elsewhere in main memory, at the target of the jump.

Jumps/branches are usually un-conditional, but conditional branches, intended to modify the operation of a program, also exist.

The term goto is often used in higher-level programming languages for this functionality (or GOTO, from the statement in BASIC which performs this action). They are now little-used (since it can be difficult to completely comprehend the operation of large programs which use gotos).

See also

• Control flow