They are only equivalent to a very limited goto, not the unlimited sort that Dijkstra's letter was primarily about. A continue or break can be replaced with th

They are only equivalent to a very limited goto, not the unlimited sort that Dijkstra's letter was primarily about. A continue or break can be replaced with this: while (some_cond) { if (whatever) continue; if (whocares) break; } => while (some_cond) { next: if (whatever) goto next; if (whocares) goto after; } after: ... EDIT: added break into the above, forgot to earlier Note that it stays within the same scope or, in the case of a break, would just escape that scope. The sort of goto Dijsktra wrote about would let you do things like this: void foo() { while(some_cond) { next: // how did we get here again? ... } } void bar() { goto next; }