Core JavaScript 1.5 Reference:Statements:block

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Contents 1 Summary 2 Syntax 3 Parameters 4 Description

[edit] Summary

A block statement is used to group zero or more statements. The block is delimited by a pair of curly brackets.

Statement
Implemented in:	JavaScript 1.0, NES 2.0
ECMA Version:	ECMA-262

[edit] Syntax

{
   statement_1
   statement_2
   ...
   statement_n
}

[edit] Parameters

statement_1, statement_2, statement_n

Statements grouped within the block statement.

[edit] Description

This statement is commonly used with control flow statements (e.g. if, for, while). For example:

while (x < 10) {
   x++;
}

Important: JavaScript does not have block scope. Variables introduced with a block are scoped to the containing function or script, and the effects of setting them persist beyond the block itself. In other words, block statements do not introduce a scope. Although "standalone" blocks are valid syntax, you do not want to use standalone blocks in JavaScript, because they don't do what you think they do, if you think they do anything like such blocks in C or Java. For example:

var x = 1;
{
   var x = 2;
}
alert(x); // outputs 2

This outputs 2 because the var x statement within the conditional is in the same scope as the var x statement before the conditional. In C or Java, the equivalent code would have outputted 1.