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Symbol

Name

Explanations

FLOW-LINE

FLOW ARROWHEADS

Flow-lines show the direction of flow. Straight lines with arrows represent them. The arrowhead eliminates doubt regarding the direction of flow. Flow-lines are used to connect symbols by exiting from one and entering another.

START or STOP/END

Flattened ellipses indicate the start and the end of a processing block. An ellipse uses the name of the processing block at the start. The word stop or end indicates the end of the block. The start has one entrance and stop has one exit.

PROCESS

The rectangle indicates a process, e.g., calculations, opening and closing files, incrementing a counter, etc. A process has one entrance and one exit.

INPUT/
OUTPUT
(use one the following 2 specific symbols where possible)

The parallelogram indicates input to and output from the computer memory. An I/0 symbol has one entrance and one exit.

DECISION

The rhombus indicates a decision. It has one entrance and two (and only two) exits from the rhombus. One exit is for the TRUE or YES result and the other exit is for the FALSE or NO result to the question asked inside the rhombus.

ON-PAGE Connector 

and 

Flowchart sections can be connected with two different symbols. The circle connects sections on the same page, and the home base plate connects flowcharts from page to page. Inside these two symbols, the programmer writes letters or numbers. The on-page connector uses letters inside the circle to indicate where the adjoining connector is located. An A connects to an A, a B to a B, etc. The off-page connectors use the page number where the next part or the previous part of the flowchart is located. On- and off-page connectors have either an entrance or an exit.

an OFF-PAGE Connector