Control Flow in Visual Basic

Left unregulated, a program proceeds through its statements from beginning to end. Some very simple programs can be written with only this unidirectional flow. However, much of the power and utility of any programming language comes from the ability to change execution order with control statements and loops.

Control structures allow you to regulate the flow of your program's execution. Using control structures, you can write Visual Basic code that makes decisions or that repeats actions. Other control structures let you guarantee disposal of a resource or run a series of statements on the same object reference.

In This Section

• Decision Structures (Visual Basic)
  Describes control structures used for branching.

• Loop Structures (Visual Basic)
  Discusses control structures used to repeat processes.

• Other Control Structures (Visual Basic)
  Describes control structures used for resource disposal and object access.

• Nested Control Structures (Visual Basic)
  Covers control structures inside other control structures.

• How to: Transfer Control Out of a Control Structure (Visual Basic)
  Summarizes how to transfer directly out of a control structure.

Related Sections

• Control Flow Summary (Visual Basic)
  Provides links to language reference pages on this subject.