C# 0 The Complete Reference

Semicolons, Positioning, and Indentation

In C#, the semicolon signals the end of a statement

.

 That is, each individual statement must 

end with a semicolon.

As you know, a block is a set of logically connected statements that are surrounded by 

opening and closing braces. A block is 

not

 terminated with a semicolon. Since a block is a 

group of statements, it makes sense that a block is not terminated by a semicolon; instead, 

the end of the block is indicated by the closing brace.

C# does not recognize the end of the line as the end of a statement—only a semicolon 

terminates a statement. For this reason, it does not matter where on a line you put a 

statement. For example, to C#,

x = y;

y = y + 1;

Console.WriteLine(x + " " + y);

is the same as

x = y;  y = y + 1;  Console.WriteLine(x + " " + y);

Furthermore, the individual elements of a statement can also be put on separate lines. For 

example, the following is perfectly acceptable:

Console.WriteLine("This is a long line of output" +

                   x + y + z +

                   "more output");

Breaking long lines in this fashion is often used to make programs more readable. It can also 

help prevent excessively long lines from wrapping.

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You may have noticed in the previous examples that certain statements were indented. 

C# is a free-form language, meaning that it does not matter where you place statements 

relative to each other on a line. However, over the years, a common and accepted indentation 

style has developed that allows for very readable programs. This book follows that style, 

and it is recommended that you do so as well. Using this style, you indent one level after 

each opening brace and move back out one level after each closing brace. There are certain 

statements that encourage some additional indenting; these will be covered later.