Unreachable code error vs. dead code warning in Java under Eclipse?

Question

Does anyone know why:

public void foo()
{
    System.out.println(\"Hello\");
    return;
    System.out.println(\"World!\");
}

Would be rep

Answer 1

I think one way to some it up is that unreachable code is most likely a mistake, and the JLS tries to protect you from such mistakes.

Allowing if (true) return; is a good way to work around the JLS limitation if you actually want to do this on purpose. If the JLS stopped this, it would be getting in the way. In addition, it should also stop:

 public static boolean DEBUG = true; //In some global class somewhere else


 ...

 if (DEBUG) return; //in a completely unrelated class.

 ...

Because the DEBUG constant is completely in-lined, and functionally equivalent to just typing a true in that if condition. From a JLS perspective those two cases are very similar.