Question

In java if we have to execute only one statement after if or for the brackets are not necessary. We can write:

if(condition)
  executeSingleStatement();

or

for(init;condition;incr)
  executeSingleStatement();

But in the case of catch block why we can not omit the brackets? Why this is not possible?

catch(Exception e)
   e.printStackTrace();

Because in most of the case we I have only one statement in catch block which is either e.printStackTrace() while testing or logging statement.

Answer 1

It’s not an issue of possible or impossible. It’s just a language (syntax) design decision.

There are several implementation of Java language parser. One could modify the parser source less than a day and allow no-bracket-enclosed catch statements.

http://www.google.com/search?q=java+parser

Also note Java language grammar.