Declare variables at top of function or in separate scopes?

Question

Which is preferred, method 1 or method 2?

Method 1:

LRESULT CALLBACK wpMainWindow(HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wparam, LPARAM lparam)
{
    switch (         


        

Answer 1

Define the variables in the narrowest scope where they are relevant. There's no reason to use Method 2 above in my opinion.

Stack space is only likely to be used when the variables are in scope. As @paxdiablo points out, your locals may wind up in registers rather than on the stack, if the compiler can find the space for them.