Re: Blocks for scope control
On 15.01.2012 16:50, Arved Sandstrom wrote:
See
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1563030/anonymous-code-blocks-in-java
for a general discussion.
I'm talking specifically about the block by itself: a pair of braces by
themselves, enclosing some code in a method. On occasion I do run across
situations where a judicious use of such a block inside a method, to
restrict variable visibility, is handy.
I almost never see anyone else using these things this way. A block in a
method always seems to be associated with a control construct or
exception handling. As any number of references point out, you wouldn't
expect to see many usages of local blocks, mainly because 99 times out
of 100 that situation is probably handled best by a new method. But in
my years of looking at Java it occurs to me that I barely see any use of
this at all...even where it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Any thoughts?
I can't remember ever having used a block without flow control inside a
method for other purposes than experimenting with scoping rules. And I
am not missing anything. I believe the fact that variables can be
declared in a for loop header as well as that all loops and if-else open
a new scope (as well as methods, of course) is responsible for me never
using blocks inside methods. IMHO chances are that if you need one or
more blocks inside methods that these things are pretty independent and
better handled by a method call which has the added benefit of providing
documentation via the method name, if chosen wisely.
Kind regards
robert
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