Question

Take as an example the following C# function:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var r = new Random();
        {
            var i = r.Next(); ;
            Console.WriteLine("i = {0}", i);
        }

        var action = new Action(delegate()
            {
                var i = r.Next();
                Console.WriteLine("Delegate: i = {0}", i);
            });
        action();
    }

The following block only exists as C# syntactic sugar to enforce an extra layer of variable scope in the source code, as discussed in this SO Question.

        {
            var i = r.Next(); ;
            Console.WriteLine("i = {0}", i);
        }

I proved this by decompiling the generated assembly with ILSpy and getting this:

    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Random r = new Random();
        int i = r.Next();
        Console.WriteLine("i = {0}", i);
        Action action = delegate
        {
            int j = r.Next();
            Console.WriteLine("Delegate: i = {0}", j);
        }
        ;
        action();
    }

So does this C# construct have a name? If so what is it?

Answer 1

It’s called a statement block.

There is actually no difference between a statement block after e.g. an if (...) and a statement block that stands alone. A statement block can be used everywhere where a statement can be used.