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

It appears that anonymous objects can be declared or created in a switch case statement for the reason that they cannot be referenced and as such cannot fall through to the next case. Consider this example compiles on GCC 4.5.3 and Visual Studio 2008 (might be a compliance issue tho' so experts please weigh in)

#include 

struct Foo{};

int main()
{
    int i = 42;

    switch( i )
    {
    case 42:
        Foo();  // Apparently valid
        break;

    default:
        break;
    }
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}