What is the purpose of anonymous { } blocks in C style languages?

Question

What is the purpose of anonymous { } blocks in C style languages (C, C++, C#)

Example -

void function()
{

  {
    int i = 0;
    i = i + 1;
  }

          


        

Answer 1

Scoping of course. (Has that horse been beaten to death yet?)

But if you look at the language definition, you see patterns like:

• if ( expression )   statement
• if ( expression )   statement   else   statement
• switch ( expression )   statement
• while ( expression )   statement
• do   statement   while ( expression ) ;

It simplifies the language syntax that compound-statement is just one of several possible statement's.

---

compound-statement:   { statement-list_opt }

statement-list:

• statement
• statement-list   statement

statement:

• labeled-statement
• expression-statement
• compound-statement
• selection-statement
• iteration-statement
• jump-statement
• declaration-statement
• try-block