Compile Error with: switch, "expected expression before"

Question

Hello,

Cut to the chase I have recreated my problem as it is fairly self explanatory.

this complies without error:

switch (n) {
    case 1:
        NSLog(@"");
        NSString *aStr;
        break;
    default:
        break;
    }

this compiles with error and it's only missing the NSLog():

switch (n) {
    case 1:
        NSString *aStr;
        break;
    default:
        break;
    }

it throws an error at compile "Expected expression before 'NSString'"

Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

In normal C you'd have to enclose this in brackets in both cases. I suspect this may fix your problem:

case 1:
{
    NSLog(@"");
    NSString *aStr;
    break;
}

See this SO question for more info.

Another way to get around this problem is to put a statement between the case label and the first declaration as you've done in your working example above. See the comments and Quinn Taylor's answer for more info.

Answer 2

You can't create objects in switch statement. I have tripped over this before. Did a "WTF?", created object outside the switch statement and moved on.

Although I AM interested why it's the way it is.

Answer 3

You can't declare a variable as the first statement in a case without brackets, and in many other contexts in C-based languages. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1231198/ for details.