New Rule: no obsolete jump statements

[silviomarghitola]

Language Usage / Control Structures / Flow Control
Avoid using jump statements that direct the flow to the default direction

from SonarQube

Jump statements should not be redundant

Jump statements, such as RETURN and CONTINUE let you change the default flow of program execution, but jump statements that direct the control flow to the original direction are just a waste of keystrokes.

Noncompliant Code Example

CREATE PROCEDURE print_numbers AS
BEGIN
  FOR i in 1..4 LOOP
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i);
    CONTINUE;
  END LOOP;
  RETURN;
END;

Compliant Solution

CREATE PROCEDURE print_numbers AS
BEGIN
  FOR i in 1..4 LOOP
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i);
  END LOOP;
END;

[PhilippSalvisberg]

If we say we should not use GOTOs (see G-4310) and RETURNs (see G-7430) only at the end of a function, then we should also avoid using CONTINUE.

Hence I'm thinking about changing the rule to not use CONTINUE at all. Thoughts?

[rogertroller]

An unconditional continue does not make sense at all...but other usages of continue are ok imho. Otherwise you would have either:

• lenghty if / else constructs
• raises and exception handler to skip an iteration
  and here continue is much easier

[PhilippSalvisberg]

So you suggest to change the rule to

Never use unconditional CONTINUE statements

Right? Do you have a good example where CONTINUE makes sense?