What is "flow-control"

In computer science, control structure (or control flow) refers to the order in which instructions, expressions, and function calls are executed or evaluated in computer programs under imperative or functional programming.

The types of control structures available differ from language to language, but can be roughly characterized by their effects. The first is the continuation of execution in another instruction, as in the sequential structure or in a jump statement. The second is the execution of a code block only if a condition is true, a selection structure. The third is the execution of a block of code while a condition is true, or in order to iterate a collection of data, a repeating structure. The fourth is the execution of instructions distant from each other, in which the flow control possibly returns to the original position later, such as subroutines and coroutines. The fifth is the computer program stop.

Interruptions and signals are low-level mechanisms that can alter the control flow in a similar way to a subroutine, but usually in response to some external stimulus or an event rather than a control structure in a language.

At the machine language level, control structure instructions usually work when changing the program counter. For some Cpus, the only instructions for control structures available are the various types of conditional jump.

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