The goto statement in C programming allows the program to transfer control to a labeled statement within the same function. It can be used to jump to a specific part of the code, either unconditionally or conditionally, bypassing any statements in between.

The basic syntax of the goto statement is as follows:

goto label;

Here, label is the name of a labeled statement within the same function. The labeled statement is denoted by a colon (:) after the label name, and it typically appears before the goto statement.

label: 
    // statement

It's important to use the goto statement carefully, as it can make the code difficult to understand and maintain. It can also lead to problems like infinite loops and unreadable code. In general, it's recommended to use structured control flow statements like if, while, for, and switch instead of the goto statement.

However, there are some situations where the goto statement can be useful, such as when implementing error handling or breaking out of nested loops. In these cases, the goto statement can simplify the code and make it more readable.

Here's an example of using the goto statement to implement error handling:

int i = 5;

if (i < 10)
{
    printf("Error: i is too small.\n");
    goto error;
}

// statements that depend on i being greater than or equal to 10

error:
    // error handling code

In this example, if i is less than 10, the program will jump to the error label and execute the error handling code. If i is greater than or equal to 10, the program will continue executing the statements after the if statement.