Opening and closing braces for if, for, or while statements should always be used, even if said statement's body contains only a single statement.
In the event that either of these statements are If an if, while, or for statement is used in a macro, this implies that then the macro definition should not be concluded with a semicolon (see PRE11-C. Do not conclude macro definitions with a semicolon).
Braces help improve the uniformity , and therefore readability of code.
More importantly, when inserting an additional statement in a body containing only a single statement, it is easy to forget to add braces when the indentation tends to give a strong (but probably misleading) guide to the structure.
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This noncompliant code example uses an if-else statement without braces to authenticate a user.
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int login; if (invalid_login()) login = 0; else login = 1; |
The programmer adds A developer might add a debugging statement to determine when the login is valid, but forgets forget to add opening and closing braces.
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Due to the indentation of the code, it is difficult to tell that the code is will not functioning function as intended by the programmer, leading to a possible security breach.
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Noncompliant Code Example
When you have an if-else statement nested in another if statement, always put braces around the if- and else bodies.
This noncompliant code example does not use braces.
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