System and method for programmatically generating a graphical program in response to state diagram information. The state diagram information specifies a plurality of states and state transitions. A graphical program generation program (GPG program), receives the state diagram information and automatically, i.e., programmatically, generates a graphical program (or graphical program portion) based on the state diagram information. The GPG program automatically includes graphical source code in a block diagram of the graphical program, which serves as a framework of the states specified by the state diagram information and the state transitions, with various "placeholders" or "containers" enabling the user to easily fill in the graphical program with source code specifying execution instructions for each state and Boolean conditions for each state transition. The specific graphical source code automatically generated depends on programming features supported by a particular graphical programming development environment with which the graphical program is associated.