Control structures without braces can lead to maintenance problems and bugs. When a developer later adds a second statement to what appears to be a
block, they might forget to add braces, causing the second statement to execute outside the intended control flow.
Consider this example:
if (condition)
doSomething()
doSomethingElse() // This always executes!
The second statement doSomethingElse() will always execute, regardless of the condition, because it’s not part of the if statement.
This is a common source of bugs that can be difficult to spot during code review.
Using braces makes the code structure explicit and prevents these types of errors. It also improves readability by clearly showing where each
control block begins and ends, especially in nested structures.
What is the potential impact?
Without braces, code modifications can introduce logic errors where statements execute outside their intended control flow. This can lead to
incorrect program behavior, security vulnerabilities, or data corruption. The impact is particularly severe when the unintended execution involves
security checks, resource management, or critical business logic.
