Question

I got an undeclared identifier error from the follow code, but i have clearly declared the variable “length” in both cases. what did I do wrong?

int startWordLenRec(char s[]) {
    if (isLetter(s) == false){
        int length = 0;
    }
    else if{
        int length = 1 + startWordLenRec(s+1);
    }
    return length;
}

Answer 1

A declaration is local to the scope you declare it in. So if you declare it inside {}, it cannot be used after the closing }.

int startWordLenRec(char s[]) {
    int length;
    if (isLetter(s) == false){
        length = 0;
    }
    else if{
        length = 1 + startWordLenRec(s+1);
    }
    return length;
}

Of course, you can also return 0; directly, without a separate variable.