Why can't variables be declared in a switch statement?

Question

I\'ve always wondered this - why can\'t you declare variables after a case label in a switch statement? In C++ you can declare variables pretty much anywhere (and declaring

Answer 1

You can declare variables within a switch statement if you start a new block:

switch (thing)
{ 
  case A:
  {
    int i = 0;  // Completely legal
  }
  break;
}

The reason is to do with allocating (and reclaiming) space on the stack for storage of the local variable(s).