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

So far the answers have been for C++.

For C++, you can't jump over an initialization. You can in C. However, in C, a declaration is not a statement, and case labels have to be followed by statements.

So, valid (but ugly) C, invalid C++

switch (something)
{
  case 1:; // Ugly hack empty statement
    int i = 6;
    do_stuff_with_i(i);
    break;
  case 2:
    do_something();
    break;
  default:
    get_a_life();
}

Conversly, in C++, a declaration is a statement, so the following is valid C++, invalid C

switch (something)
{
  case 1:
    do_something();
    break;
  case 2:
    int i = 12;
    do_something_else();
}