Editing Spaghetti code (section)

== Meaning ==
Code that overuses [[Goto|GOTO]] statements rather than [[structured programming]] constructs, resulting in convoluted and unmaintainable programs, is often called spaghetti code.<ref name="Cram5">{{cite journal|last1=Cram|first1=David|last2=Hedley|first2=Paul|title=Pronouns and procedural meaning: The relevance of spaghetti code and paranoid delusion|journal=Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics|date=2005|volume=10|pages=187–210|url=http://mostlyharmless.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cramhedley-web.pdf|access-date=5 March 2018|archive-date=6 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306022905/http://mostlyharmless.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cramhedley-web.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Such code has a complex and tangled [[control structure]], resulting in a program flow that is conceptually like a [[Spaghetti#Serving|bowl of spaghetti]], twisted and tangled<!-- pages 235–236 -->.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Horstmann|first1=Cay|title=Java Concepts for AP Computer Science|date=2008|publisher=J. Wiley & Sons|location=Hoboken, NJ|isbn=978-0-470-18160-7|pages=235–236|edition=5th ed. [i.e. 2nd ed.].|chapter-url=http://horstmann.com/bigjava3.html|access-date=2 January 2017|language=en|chapter=Chapter 6 - Iteration}}</ref>

In a 1980 publication by the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|United States National Bureau of Standards]], the phrase '''''spaghetti program''''' was used to describe older programs having "fragmented and scattered files".<ref>{{cite book|title=ASTM special technical publication|issue=500–565|author=United States National Bureau of Standards|publisher=United States Government Printing Office|year=1980}}</ref><!-- page 15 -->

Spaghetti code can also describe an [[anti-pattern]] in which [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented code]] is written in a procedural style, such as by creating classes whose methods are overly long and messy, or forsaking object-oriented concepts like [[Polymorphism (computer science)|polymorphism]].<ref name="Moha10">{{cite journal|last1=Moha|first1=N.|last2=Gueheneuc|first2=Y. G.|last3=Duchien|first3=L.|last4=Meur|first4=A. F. Le|title=DECOR: A Method for the Specification and Detection of Code and Design Smells|journal=IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering|date=January 2010|volume=36|issue=1|pages=20–36|doi=10.1109/TSE.2009.50|issn=0098-5589|citeseerx=10.1.1.156.1524|s2cid=14767901}}</ref> The presence of this form of spaghetti code can significantly reduce the comprehensibility of a system.<ref name="Abbes11">{{cite book|last1=Abbes|first1=M.|last2=Khomh|first2=F.|last3=Gueheneuc|first3=Y. G.|last4=Antoniol|first4=G.|title=2011 15th European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering |chapter=An Empirical Study of the Impact of Two Antipatterns, Blob and Spaghetti Code, on Program Comprehension |date=2011|pages=181–190|doi=10.1109/CSMR.2011.24|isbn=978-1-61284-259-2|citeseerx=10.1.1.294.1685|s2cid=14152638}}</ref>