PROGRAMMING - Hacking: The Art of Exploitation - page 8

0x230 Control Structures

Without control structures, a program would just be a series of instructions
executed in sequential order. This is fine for very simple programs, but most
programs, like the driving directions example, aren't that simple. The driv-
ing directions included statements like, Continue on Main Street until you see a
church on your right and If the street is blocked because of construction. . . . These
statements are known as control structures , and they change the flow of the
program's execution from a simple sequential order to a more complex and
more useful flow.

0x231 If-Then-Else

In the case of our driving directions, Main Street could be under construction.
If it is, a special set of instructions needs to address that situation. Otherwise,
the original set of instructions should be followed. These types of special cases
can be accounted for in a program with one of the most natural control
structures: the if-then-else structure . In general, it looks something like this:

If (condition) then
{
Set of instructions to execute if the condition is met;
}
Else
{
Set of instruction to execute if the condition is not met;
}

For this topic, a C-like pseudo-code will be used, so every instruction will
end with a semicolon, and the sets of instructions will be grouped with curly
braces and indentation. The if-then-else pseudo-code structure of the pre-
ceding driving directions might look something like this:

Drive down Main Street;
If (street is blocked)
{
Turn right on 15th Street;
Turn left on Pine Street;
Turn right on 16th Street;
}
Else
{
Turn right on 16th Street;
}

Each instruction is on its own line, and the various sets of conditional
instructions are grouped between curly braces and indented for readability.
In C and many other programming languages, the then keyword is implied and
therefore left out, so it has also been omitted in the preceding pseudo-code.