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Statement block



 
 
In computer programming
Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language....
, a statement block (or code block) is a section of code which is grouped together, much like a paragraph
Paragraph

A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea. The start of a paragraph is indicated by beginning on a new line....
; such blocks consist of one, or more, statements
Statement (programming)

In computer programming a statement can be thought of as the smallest standalone element of an imperative programming language. A program is formed by a sequence of one or more statements....
. Statement blocks help make code more readable by breaking up programs into logical work units.

In C
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
, C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
, Java
Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java ....
 and some other languages
Curly bracket programming language

Curly brace or bracket programming languages are those which use balanced brackets to make block s in their syntax or formal grammar, mainly due to being C -influenced....
, statement blocks are enclosed by curly brace
Bracket

Brackets are punctuation marks used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. In computer science, the term is sometimes said to strictly apply to the square or box type....
s . In Algol, Pascal, Ada, and some other languages, they are denoted by "begin" and "end" statements.






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Encyclopedia


In computer programming
Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language....
, a statement block (or code block) is a section of code which is grouped together, much like a paragraph
Paragraph

A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea. The start of a paragraph is indicated by beginning on a new line....
; such blocks consist of one, or more, statements
Statement (programming)

In computer programming a statement can be thought of as the smallest standalone element of an imperative programming language. A program is formed by a sequence of one or more statements....
. Statement blocks help make code more readable by breaking up programs into logical work units.

In C
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
, C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
, Java
Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java ....
 and some other languages
Curly bracket programming language

Curly brace or bracket programming languages are those which use balanced brackets to make block s in their syntax or formal grammar, mainly due to being C -influenced....
, statement blocks are enclosed by curly brace
Bracket

Brackets are punctuation marks used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. In computer science, the term is sometimes said to strictly apply to the square or box type....
s . In Algol, Pascal, Ada, and some other languages, they are denoted by "begin" and "end" statements. In Python
Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python's core syntax and semantics are Minimalism , while the standard library is large and comprehensive....
 they are indicated by indentation (the Off-side rule
Off-side rule

A computer programming language is said to adhere to the off-side rule if in it the scope of declarations is expressed by their indentation, i.e., blocks are formed via indentation....
). Unlike paragraphs, statement blocks can be nested; that is, with one block inside another. Blocks often define the scope
Scope (programming)

In computer programming, scope is an enclosing context where values and expressions are associated. Various programming languages have various types of scopes....
 of the identifiers used within.

Blocks become more independent when they can have their own variables, i.e. if identifiers defined inside a block cannot be referred to from outside that block. Languages without lexical scoping such as Javascript
JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development. It was the originating Programming language dialect of the ECMAScript standard....
 and Pico
Pico programming language

Pico is a programming language developed at the PROG lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The language was created to introduce the essentials of programming to non computer science students....
 cannot support this in principle, but many languages with lexical scoping still don't support it for nested blocks (e.g., some dialects of C
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
, C#), while others do (e.g. Algol 68
ALGOL 68

ALGOL 68 is an imperative programming computer programming programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously defined syntax and semantics....
, other dialects of C, VB.NET).

In C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
, blocks can be used to define object lifetime (creation and destruction). In languages such as Smalltalk
Smalltalk

Smalltalk is an Object-oriented programming, Type system, reflection computer programming programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human?computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist learning, at PARC by Al...
, blocks are objects in their own right, extended with a reference to their environment of definition, i.e. closures
Closure (computer science)

In computer science, a closure is a function that is evaluated in an environment containing one or more bound variables. When called, the function can access these variables....
.

A typical statement block

int main



A nested statement block

int main



Other formats


Java programmers typically use a slightly different convention for placing the braces. The opening brace is on the same line as the method
Method (computer science)

In object-oriented programming, a method is a subroutine that is exclusively associated either with a class or with an object . Like a procedure in procedural programming languages, a method usually consists of a sequence of statement to perform an action, a set of input parameter to customize those actions, and possibly an output value...
 declaration:

int main

int main

Visual Basic requires an explicit End statement, as follows:

If x > 0 Then

y = y + x

End If

For i = 1 To 10

DoSomething(i)

Next ' or Next i



SQL Server and some other languages (e.g. Pascal) use Begin ... End blocks



IF y IS NOT NULL BEGIN SELECT * FROM employee WHERE name = y END



See also

  • Structured programming
    Structured programming

    Structured programming can be seen as a subset or subdiscipline of procedural programming, one of the major programming paradigms. It is most famous for removing or reducing reliance on the GOTO Statement ....
  • Lexical scope
  • Closure (computer science)
    Closure (computer science)

    In computer science, a closure is a function that is evaluated in an environment containing one or more bound variables. When called, the function can access these variables....