Compound Statements (Blocks)
The latest version of this topic can be found at Compound Statements (Blocks).
A compound statement consists of zero or more statements enclosed in curly braces ({ }). A compound statement can be used anywhere a statement is expected. Compound statements are commonly called "blocks."
Syntax
{ [ statement-list ] }
Remarks
The following example uses a compound statement as the statement part of the if statement (see The if Statement for details about the syntax):
if( Amount > 100 )
{
cout << "Amount was too large to handle\n";
Alert();
}
else
Balance -= Amount;
Note
Because a declaration is a statement, a declaration can be one of the statements in the statement-list. As a result, names declared inside a compound statement, but not explicitly declared as static, have local scope and (for objects) lifetime. See Scope for details about treatment of names with local scope.