Question

Possible Duplicate:
When do you use code blocks?

Ok, this might be a stupid question and I might be missing something obvious but as I slowly learn C# this has kept nagging me for a while now.

The following code obviously compiles just fine:

public void Foo()
{
    {
        int i = 1;
        i++;
    }

    {
        int i = 1;
        i--;
    }
}

I understand that {} blocks can be used for scoping. The question is why would you want to do this? What problems does this feature solve?

There is no harm that I can see in using them barring that it does add to a more confusing code as these kind of scopes can be more easily overlooked compared those “tied” to flow controls, iterations, etc.

Answer 1

It is useful in switch statements where your variable declarations can become confusing:

Confusing code:

switch (true)
{
    case true:
        var msg = "This is true.";
        var copy = msg;
        break;

    case false:
        msg = "This is false.";
        copy = msg;
        break;
}

Clear code:

switch (true)
{
    case true:
    {
        var msg = "This is true.";
        var copy = msg;
        break;
    }

    case false:
    {
        var msg = "This is false.";
        var copy = msg;
        break;
    }
}