Except as indicated, statements are executed in sequence.
statement: labeled-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt expression-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt compound-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt selection-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt iteration-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt jump-statement declaration-statement attribute-specifier-seqopt try-block
The optional attribute-specifier-seq appertains to the respective statement.
labeled-statement: attribute-specifier-seqopt identifier : statement attribute-specifier-seqopt case constant-expression : statement attribute-specifier-seqopt default : statement
The optional attribute-specifier-seq appertains to the label. An identifier label declares the identifier. The only use of an identifier label is as the target of a goto. The scope of a label is the function in which it appears. Labels shall not be redeclared within a function. A label can be used in a goto statement before its definition. Labels have their own name space and do not interfere with other identifiers.
Expression statements have the form
expression-statement: expressionopt ;
The expression is a discarded-value expression (Clause [expr]). All side effects from an expression statement are completed before the next statement is executed. An expression statement with the expression missing is called a null statement. [ Note: Most statements are expression statements — usually assignments or function calls. A null statement is useful to carry a label just before the } of a compound statement and to supply a null body to an iteration statement such as a while statement ([stmt.while]). — end note ]
So that several statements can be used where one is expected, the compound statement (also, and equivalently, called “block”) is provided.
compound-statement: { statement-seqopt }
statement-seq: statement statement-seq statement
A compound statement defines a block scope ([basic.scope]). [ Note: A declaration is a statement ([stmt.dcl]). — end note ]
Selection statements choose one of several flows of control.
selection-statement: if ( condition ) statement if ( condition ) statement else statement switch ( condition ) statement
condition: expression attribute-specifier-seqopt decl-specifier-seq declarator = initializer-clause attribute-specifier-seqopt decl-specifier-seq declarator braced-init-list
See [dcl.meaning] for the optional attribute-specifier-seq in a condition. In Clause [stmt.stmt], the term substatement refers to the contained statement or statements that appear in the syntax notation. The substatement in a selection-statement (each substatement, in the else form of the if statement) implicitly defines a block scope ([basic.scope]). If the substatement in a selection-statement is a single statement and not a compound-statement, it is as if it was rewritten to be a compound-statement containing the original substatement. [ Example:
if (x) int i;
can be equivalently rewritten as
if (x) {
int i;
}
Thus after the if statement, i is no longer in scope. — end example ]
The rules for conditions apply both to selection-statements and to the for and while statements ([stmt.iter]). The declarator shall not specify a function or an array. The decl-specifier-seq shall not define a class or enumeration. If the auto type-specifier appears in the decl-specifier-seq, the type of the identifier being declared is deduced from the initializer as described in [dcl.spec.auto].
A name introduced by a declaration in a condition (either introduced by the decl-specifier-seq or the declarator of the condition) is in scope from its point of declaration until the end of the substatements controlled by the condition. If the name is re-declared in the outermost block of a substatement controlled by the condition, the declaration that re-declares the name is ill-formed. [ Example:
if (int x = f()) {
int x; // ill-formed, redeclaration of x
}
else {
int x; // ill-formed, redeclaration of x
}
— end example ]
The value of a condition that is an initialized declaration in a statement other than a switch statement is the value of the declared variable contextually converted to bool (Clause [conv]). If that conversion is ill-formed, the program is ill-formed. The value of a condition that is an initialized declaration in a switch statement is the value of the declared variable if it has integral or enumeration type, or of that variable implicitly converted to integral or enumeration type otherwise. The value of a condition that is an expression is the value of the expression, contextually converted to bool for statements other than switch; if that conversion is ill-formed, the program is ill-formed. The value of the condition will be referred to as simply “the condition” where the usage is unambiguous.
If a condition can be syntactically resolved as either an expression or the declaration of a block-scope name, it is interpreted as a declaration.
In the decl-specifier-seq of a condition, each decl-specifier shall be either a type-specifier or constexpr.
If the condition ([stmt.select]) yields true the first substatement is executed. If the else part of the selection statement is present and the condition yields false, the second substatement is executed. If the first substatement is reached via a label, the condition is not evaluated and the second substatement is not executed. In the second form of if statement (the one including else), if the first substatement is also an if statement then that inner if statement shall contain an else part.88
In other words, the else is associated with the nearest un-elsed if.
The switch statement causes control to be transferred to one of several statements depending on the value of a condition.
The condition shall be of integral type, enumeration type, or class type. If of class type, the condition is contextually implicitly converted (Clause [conv]) to an integral or enumeration type. If the (possibly converted) type is subject to integral promotions ([conv.prom]), the condition is converted to the promoted type. Any statement within the switch statement can be labeled with one or more case labels as follows:
case constant-expression :
where the constant-expression shall be a converted constant expression ([expr.const]) of the adjusted type of the switch condition. No two of the case constants in the same switch shall have the same value after conversion.
Switch statements can be nested; a case or default label is associated with the smallest switch enclosing it.
When the switch statement is executed, its condition is evaluated and compared with each case constant. If one of the case constants is equal to the value of the condition, control is passed to the statement following the matched case label. If no case constant matches the condition, and if there is a default label, control passes to the statement labeled by the default label. If no case matches and if there is no default then none of the statements in the switch is executed.
case and default labels in themselves do not alter the flow of control, which continues unimpeded across such labels. To exit from a switch, see break, [stmt.break]. [ Note: Usually, the substatement that is the subject of a switch is compound and case and default labels appear on the top-level statements contained within the (compound) substatement, but this is not required. Declarations can appear in the substatement of a switch-statement. — end note ]
Iteration statements specify looping.
iteration-statement: while ( condition ) statement do statement while ( expression ) ; for ( for-init-statement conditionopt ; expressionopt ) statement for ( for-range-declaration : for-range-initializer ) statement
for-init-statement: expression-statement simple-declaration
for-range-declaration: attribute-specifier-seqopt decl-specifier-seq declarator
for-range-initializer: expression braced-init-list
See [dcl.meaning] for the optional attribute-specifier-seq in a for-range-declaration. [ Note: A for-init-statement ends with a semicolon. — end note ]
The substatement in an iteration-statement implicitly defines a block scope ([basic.scope]) which is entered and exited each time through the loop.
If the substatement in an iteration-statement is a single statement and not a compound-statement, it is as if it was rewritten to be a compound-statement containing the original statement. [ Example:
while (--x >= 0) int i;
can be equivalently rewritten as
while (--x >= 0) {
int i;
}
Thus after the while statement, i is no longer in scope. — end example ]
[ Note: The requirements on conditions in iteration statements are described in [stmt.select]. — end note ]
In the while statement the substatement is executed repeatedly until the value of the condition ([stmt.select]) becomes false. The test takes place before each execution of the substatement.
When the condition of a while statement is a declaration, the scope of the variable that is declared extends from its point of declaration ([basic.scope.pdecl]) to the end of the while statement. A while statement of the form
while (T t = x) statement
is equivalent to
label:{ // start of condition scope
T t = x;
if (t) {
statement
goto label;
}
} // end of condition scope
The variable created in a condition is destroyed and created with each iteration of the loop. [ Example:
struct A {
int val;
A(int i) : val(i) { }
~A() { }
operator bool() { return val != 0; }
};
int i = 1;
while (A a = i) {
// ...
i = 0;
}
In the while-loop, the constructor and destructor are each called twice, once for the condition that succeeds and once for the condition that fails. — end example ]
The expression is contextually converted to bool (Clause [conv]); if that conversion is ill-formed, the program is ill-formed.
In the do statement the substatement is executed repeatedly until the value of the expression becomes false. The test takes place after each execution of the statement.
The for statement
for ( for-init-statement conditionopt ; expressionopt ) statement
is equivalent to
{ for-init-statement while ( condition ) { statement expression ; } }
except that names declared in the for-init-statement are in the same declarative region as those declared in the condition, and except that a continue in statement (not enclosed in another iteration statement) will execute expression before re-evaluating condition. [ Note: Thus the first statement specifies initialization for the loop; the condition ([stmt.select]) specifies a test, made before each iteration, such that the loop is exited when the condition becomes false; the expression often specifies incrementing that is done after each iteration. — end note ]
Either or both of the condition and the expression can be omitted. A missing condition makes the implied while clause equivalent to while(true).
If the for-init-statement is a declaration, the scope of the name(s) declared extends to the end of the for statement. [ Example:
int i = 42;
int a[10];
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
a[i] = i;
int j = i; // j = 42
— end example ]
For a range-based for statement of the form
for ( for-range-declaration : expression ) statement
let range-init be equivalent to the expression surrounded by parentheses89
( expression )
and for a range-based for statement of the form
for ( for-range-declaration : braced-init-list ) statement
let range-init be equivalent to the braced-init-list. In each case, a range-based for statement is equivalent to
{
auto && __range = range-init;
for ( auto __begin = begin-expr,
__end = end-expr;
__begin != __end;
++__begin ) {
for-range-declaration = *__begin;
statement
}
}
where __range, __begin, and __end are variables defined for exposition only, and _RangeT is the type of the expression, and begin-expr and end-expr are determined as follows:
if _RangeT is an array type, begin-expr and end-expr are __range and __range + __bound, respectively, where __bound is the array bound. If _RangeT is an array of unknown size or an array of incomplete type, the program is ill-formed;
if _RangeT is a class type, the unqualified-ids begin and end are looked up in the scope of class _RangeT as if by class member access lookup ([basic.lookup.classref]), and if either (or both) finds at least one declaration, begin-expr and end-expr are __range.begin() and __range.end(), respectively;
otherwise, begin-expr and end-expr are begin(__range) and end(__range), respectively, where begin and end are looked up in the associated namespaces ([basic.lookup.argdep]). [ Note: Ordinary unqualified lookup ([basic.lookup.unqual]) is not performed. — end note ]
[ Example:
int array[5] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
for (int& x : array)
x *= 2;
In the decl-specifier-seq of a for-range-declaration, each decl-specifier shall be either a type-specifier or constexpr. The decl-specifier-seq shall not define a class or enumeration.
this ensures that a top-level comma operator cannot be reinterpreted as a delimiter between init-declarators in the declaration of __range.
Jump statements unconditionally transfer control.
jump-statement: break ; continue ; return expressionopt ; return braced-init-list ; goto identifier ;
On exit from a scope (however accomplished), objects with automatic storage duration ([basic.stc.auto]) that have been constructed in that scope are destroyed in the reverse order of their construction. [ Note: For temporaries, see [class.temporary]. — end note ] Transfer out of a loop, out of a block, or back past an initialized variable with automatic storage duration involves the destruction of objects with automatic storage duration that are in scope at the point transferred from but not at the point transferred to. (See [stmt.dcl] for transfers into blocks). [ Note: However, the program can be terminated (by calling std::exit() or std::abort() ([support.start.term]), for example) without destroying class objects with automatic storage duration. — end note ]
The break statement shall occur only in an iteration-statement or a switch statement and causes termination of the smallest enclosing iteration-statement or switch statement; control passes to the statement following the terminated statement, if any.
The continue statement shall occur only in an iteration-statement and causes control to pass to the loop-continuation portion of the smallest enclosing iteration-statement, that is, to the end of the loop. More precisely, in each of the statements
while (foo) {
{
// ...
}
contin: ;
}
do {
{
// ...
}
contin: ;
} while (foo);
for (;;) {
{
// ...
}
contin: ;
}
a continue not contained in an enclosed iteration statement is equivalent to goto contin.
A function returns to its caller by the return statement.
A return statement with neither an expression nor a braced-init-list can be used only in functions that do not return a value, that is, a function with the return type cv void, a constructor ([class.ctor]), or a destructor ([class.dtor]). A return statement with an expression of non-void type can be used only in functions returning a value; the value of the expression is returned to the caller of the function. The value of the expression is implicitly converted to the return type of the function in which it appears. A return statement can involve the construction and copy or move of a temporary object ([class.temporary]). [ Note: A copy or move operation associated with a return statement may be elided or considered as an rvalue for the purpose of overload resolution in selecting a constructor ([class.copy]). — end note ] A return statement with a braced-init-list initializes the object or reference to be returned from the function by copy-list-initialization ([dcl.init.list]) from the specified initializer list. [ Example:
std::pair<std::string,int> f(const char* p, int x) {
return {p,x};
}
— end example ]
Flowing off the end of a function is equivalent to a return with no value; this results in undefined behavior in a value-returning function.
A return statement with an expression of type void can be used only in functions with a return type of cv void; the expression is evaluated just before the function returns to its caller.
The goto statement unconditionally transfers control to the statement labeled by the identifier. The identifier shall be a label ([stmt.label]) located in the current function.
A declaration statement introduces one or more new identifiers into a block; it has the form
declaration-statement: block-declaration
If an identifier introduced by a declaration was previously declared in an outer block, the outer declaration is hidden for the remainder of the block, after which it resumes its force.
Variables with automatic storage duration ([basic.stc.auto]) are initialized each time their declaration-statement is executed. Variables with automatic storage duration declared in the block are destroyed on exit from the block ([stmt.jump]).
It is possible to transfer into a block, but not in a way that bypasses declarations with initialization. A program that jumps90 from a point where a variable with automatic storage duration is not in scope to a point where it is in scope is ill-formed unless the variable has scalar type, class type with a trivial default constructor and a trivial destructor, a cv-qualified version of one of these types, or an array of one of the preceding types and is declared without an initializer ([dcl.init]). [ Example:
void f() {
// ...
goto lx; // ill-formed: jump into scope of a
// ...
ly:
X a = 1;
// ...
lx:
goto ly; // OK, jump implies destructor
// call for a followed by construction
// again immediately following label ly
}
— end example ]
The zero-initialization ([dcl.init]) of all block-scope variables with static storage duration ([basic.stc.static]) or thread storage duration ([basic.stc.thread]) is performed before any other initialization takes place. Constant initialization ([basic.start.init]) of a block-scope entity with static storage duration, if applicable, is performed before its block is first entered. An implementation is permitted to perform early initialization of other block-scope variables with static or thread storage duration under the same conditions that an implementation is permitted to statically initialize a variable with static or thread storage duration in namespace scope ([basic.start.init]). Otherwise such a variable is initialized the first time control passes through its declaration; such a variable is considered initialized upon the completion of its initialization. If the initialization exits by throwing an exception, the initialization is not complete, so it will be tried again the next time control enters the declaration. If control enters the declaration concurrently while the variable is being initialized, the concurrent execution shall wait for completion of the initialization.91 If control re-enters the declaration recursively while the variable is being initialized, the behavior is undefined. [ Example:
int foo(int i) {
static int s = foo(2*i); // recursive call - undefined
return i+1;
}
— end example ]
The destructor for a block-scope object with static or thread storage duration will be executed if and only if it was constructed. [ Note: [basic.start.term] describes the order in which block-scope objects with static and thread storage duration are destroyed. — end note ]
The transfer from the condition of a switch statement to a case label is considered a jump in this respect.
The implementation must not introduce any deadlock around execution of the initializer.
There is an ambiguity in the grammar involving expression-statements and declarations: An expression-statement with a function-style explicit type conversion ([expr.type.conv]) as its leftmost subexpression can be indistinguishable from a declaration where the first declarator starts with a (. In those cases the statement is a declaration.
[ Note: If the statement cannot syntactically be a declaration, there is no ambiguity, so this rule does not apply. The whole statement might need to be examined to determine whether this is the case. This resolves the meaning of many examples. [ Example: Assuming T is a simple-type-specifier ([dcl.type]),
T(a)->m = 7; // expression-statement T(a)++; // expression-statement T(a,5)<<c; // expression-statement T(*d)(int); // declaration T(e)[5]; // declaration T(f) = { 1, 2 }; // declaration T(*g)(double(3)); // declaration
In the last example above, g, which is a pointer to T, is initialized to double(3). This is of course ill-formed for semantic reasons, but that does not affect the syntactic analysis. — end example ]
The remaining cases are declarations. [ Example:
class T {
// ...
public:
T();
T(int);
T(int, int);
};
T(a); // declaration
T(*b)(); // declaration
T(c)=7; // declaration
T(d),e,f=3; // declaration
extern int h;
T(g)(h,2); // declaration
— end example ] — end note ]
The disambiguation is purely syntactic; that is, the meaning of the names occurring in such a statement, beyond whether they are type-names or not, is not generally used in or changed by the disambiguation. Class templates are instantiated as necessary to determine if a qualified name is a type-name. Disambiguation precedes parsing, and a statement disambiguated as a declaration may be an ill-formed declaration. If, during parsing, a name in a template parameter is bound differently than it would be bound during a trial parse, the program is ill-formed. No diagnostic is required. [ Note: This can occur only when the name is declared earlier in the declaration. — end note ] [ Example:
struct T1 {
T1 operator()(int x) { return T1(x); }
int operator=(int x) { return x; }
T1(int) { }
};
struct T2 { T2(int){ } };
int a, (*(*b)(T2))(int), c, d;
void f() {
// disambiguation requires this to be parsed as a declaration:
T1(a) = 3,
T2(4), // T2 will be declared as
(*(*b)(T2(c)))(int(d)); // a variable of type T1
// but this will not allow
// the last part of the
// declaration to parse
// properly since it depends
// on T2 being a type-name
}