Why does C# allow {} code blocks without a preceding statement?

Question

Why does C# allow code blocks without a preceding statement (e.g. if, else, for, while)?

void Main()
{
           


        

Answer 1

It is not so much a feature of C# than it is a logical side-effect of many C syntax languages that use braces to define scope.

In your example the braces have no effect at all, but in the following code they define the scope, and therefore the visibility, of a variable:

This is allowed as i falls out of scope in the first block and is defined again in the next:

{
    {
        int i = 0;
    }

    {
        int i = 0;
    }
}

This is not allowed as i has fallen out of scope and is no longer visible in the outer scope:

{
    {
        int i = 0;
    }

    i = 1;
}

And so on and so on.