Loops without braces can lead to maintenance issues and bugs. When the loop body contains only one statement, it’s tempting to omit the braces for
brevity.
However, this practice creates several problems:
- Accidental logic errors: When developers later add statements after the loop, they might assume these new statements are part
of the loop body. Without braces, only the first statement actually belongs to the loop.
- Reduced readability: Braces make the loop structure immediately clear to anyone reading the code.
- Inconsistent formatting: Different developers might format single-statement loops differently, making the codebase harder to
maintain.
Consider this example:
while (i < items.size())
processItem(items[i]);
i++; // This line is NOT part of the loop!
In this case, the increment statement runs only once after the loop completes, creating an infinite loop. With braces, this mistake would be
immediately obvious.
What is the potential impact?
This issue can lead to logic errors and infinite loops when developers mistakenly add statements they believe are part of the loop body. It also
reduces code maintainability and consistency across the codebase.
