CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c
Ben Aston
Ben Aston

Reputation: 55739

Can you have a bare block in C?

I know that in C# and JavaScript, the following is perfectly valid:

{
  var foo;
}

Is having a bare block valid in C too?

i.e. is this valid C?

{
  int foo;
}

Upvotes: 2

Views: 155

Answers (2)

Rizier123
Rizier123

Reputation: 59691

Yes it's totally fine!

As an example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

{   
    int i = 5;  //If you declare i outside you can use both print statements
    printf("%d", i);
}


//printf("%d", i);  Note that i is out of scope here

    return 0;

}

Upvotes: 5

ouah
ouah

Reputation: 145839

Is this valid in C too?

Yes, it is and it is called a compound statement.

From the C11 Standard:

6.8.2 Compound statement
Syntax
1 compound-statement:
    { block-item-listopt }
block-item-list:
    block-item
    block-item-list block-item
block-item:
    declaration
    statement

A compound-statement is itself a statement in C.

For example this block is a valid block:

{
    {
        {
            printf("Hello world");
        }
    }
}

Even this one is valid:

{{{}}}

{} is an empty compound statement.

Upvotes: 7

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