Question

Is the “missing semicolon” error really required? Why not treat it as a warning?

When I compile this code

int f = 1
int h=2;

the compiler intelligently tells me that where I am missing it. But to me it’s like – “If you know it, just treat it as if it’s there and go ahead. (Later I can fix the warning.)

  int sdf = 1, df=2;
  sdf=1 df =2

Even for this code, it behaves the same. That is, even if multiple statements (without 😉 are in the same line, the compiler knows.

So, why not just remove this requirement? Why not behave like Python, Visual Basic, etc.

Summary of discussion

Two examples/instances were missing, and a semi-colon would actually cause a problem.

1.

return
 (a+b)

This was presented as one of the worst aspects of JavaScript. But, in this scenario, semicolon insertion is a problem for JavaScript, but not
for C++. In C++, you will get another error if ; insertion is done after return. That is, a missing return value.

2

int *y;
int f = 1
*y = 2;

For this I guess, there is no better way than to introduce as statement separator, that is, a semicolon.

Answer 1

There are many cases where a semicolon is needed.

What if you had:

int *y;
int f = 1
*y = 2;

This would be parsed as

int *y;
int f = 1 * y = 2;

So without the semicolons it is ambiguous.