Question

Basically I’m quite new to Java and just been given some code which reads:

if (n > 1)
    l--;
m = l;

Although I’m wondering whether this would be equivalent to either one of these, and if so which and why?

#1

if (n > 1) {
    l--;
    m = l;
}

OR

#2

if (n > 1) {
    l--;
}
m = l;

Answer 1

It’s the same as the second block of code.

When you don’t see braces following a “grouping” statement (the if statement, in your example), it means that only the next line falls within the scope of that grouping statement.

Going beyond what the question asks, languages such as Java, C/C++, and C# use braces to declare blocks of code, whereas languages such as Python use whitespace. You can think of line of code is a block by itself. Blocks can be incrementally built by combining more blocks. This is done by grouping blocks; in Java, this is done through curly braces. When the if statement is evaluated (or a for loop, or a while loop, etc), the next outermost block falls under that statement.