Editing Pointer (computer programming) (section)

===Use in control tables===
{{see also|#Function pointer|#Wild branch}}
[[Control table]]s that are used to control [[program flow]] usually make extensive use of pointers. The pointers, usually embedded in a table entry, may, for instance, be used to hold the entry points to [[subroutine]]s to be executed, based on certain conditions defined in the same table entry. The pointers can however be simply indexes to other separate, but associated, tables comprising an array of the actual addresses or the addresses themselves (depending upon the programming language constructs available). They can also be used to point to earlier table entries (as in loop processing) or forward to skip some table entries (as in a [[Switch statement|switch]] or "early" exit from a loop). For this latter purpose, the "pointer" may simply be the table entry number itself and can be transformed into an actual address by simple arithmetic.