Java switch cases: with or without braces?

Question

Consider the following two snippets, with braces:

switch (var) {
  case FOO: {
    x = x + 1;
    break;
  }

  case BAR: {
    y = y + 1;
    break;
  }
}
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Answer 1

You say the braces can be omitted because no variables names are being reused. By reusing variable names, I assume you mean declaring a new variable of the same type.

The braces are actually most useful to ensure you don't end up reusing the same variable in different cases by mistake. They don't declare any variables today, but someone will add them tomorrow and without the braces the code is error-prone.