Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Relationship Between Data Types and Control Structures

Data types and control structures relate to each other in well-defined ways that were originally described by the British computer scientist Michael Jackson (Jackson 1975). This section sketches the regular relationship between data and control flow.

Jackson draws connections between three types of data and corresponding control structures:

Sequential data translates to sequential statements in a program. Sequences consist of clusters of data used together in a certain order, as suggested by Figure 10-2. If you have five statements in a row that handle five different values, they are sequential statements. If you read an employee's name, Social Security Number, address, phone number, and age ...