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MISRA C++:2008 Rule 6-3-1

The statement forming the body of a switch, while, do while or for statement shall be a compound statement

Description

Rule Definition

The statement forming the body of a switch, while, do ... while or for statement shall be a compound statement.

Rationale

A compound statement is included in braces.

If a block of code associated with an iteration or selection statement is not contained in braces, you can make mistakes about the association. For example:

  • You can wrongly associate a line of code with an iteration or selection statement because of its indentation.

  • You can accidentally place a semicolon following the iteration or selection statement. Because of the semicolon, the line following the statement is no longer associated with the statement even though you intended otherwise.

This checker enforces the practice of adding braces following a selection or iteration statement even for a single line in the body. Later, when more lines are added, the developer adding them does not need to note the absence of braces and include them.

Polyspace Implementation

The checker flags for loops where the first token following a for statement is not a left brace, for instance:

for (i=init_val; i > 0; i--)
   if (arr[i] < 0)
      arr[i] = 0;
Similar checks are performed for switch, for and do..while statements.

The second line of the message on the Result Details pane indicates which statement is violating the rule. For instance, in the preceding example, the second line of the message states that the for loop is violating the rule.

Troubleshooting

If you expect a rule violation but Polyspace® does not report it, see Diagnose Why Coding Standard Violations Do Not Appear as Expected.

Check Information

Group: Statements
Category: Required

Version History

Introduced in R2013b

See Also

Topics