Variable declarations following if statements

Question

An issue came up on another forum and I knew how to fix it, but it revealed a feature of the compiler peculiar to me. The person was getting the error \"Embedded statement c

Answer 1

When you don't include the brackets, it executes the next line as if it were surrounded by brackets. Since it doesn't make much sense to declare a variable in that line (you wouldn't be able to use it ever), the C# compiler will not allow this to prevent you from accidentally doing it without knowing (which might introduce subtle bugs).

Here's part of Eric Lippert has to say about the C# compiler on this SO answer about name resolution:

...C# is not a "guess what the user meant" language...the compiler by design complains loudly if the best match is something that doesn't work