Effective Java, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9. General Programming

THIS chapter is devoted to the nuts and bolts of the language. It discusses local variables, control structures, libraries, data types, and two extralinguistic facilities: reflection and native methods. Finally, it discusses optimization and naming conventions.

Item 57: Minimize the scope of local variables

This item is similar in nature to Item 15, “Minimize the accessibility of classes and members.” By minimizing the scope of local variables, you increase the readability and maintainability of your code and reduce the likelihood of error.

Older programming languages, such as C, mandated that local variables must be declared at the head of a block, and some programmers continue to do this out of habit. It’s a habit ...