Reading Blocks by Their Braces

Reading Blocks by Their Braces

In this lesson, you found out why the release note’s JavaScript port printed the triage call on a day with no open bugs, and how to put that line inside the if.

• Python reads a block from its indentation, but JavaScript doesn’t read indentation at all. An if without braces controls exactly one statement, so the next line runs every time, however it’s indented.
• Curly braces make the block: the opening brace after the condition starts it, and the closing brace ends it. A braced block counts as one statement, so the if controls all of it.
• Always write the braces, even around one line, so a line someone adds under an if lands inside the block. A formatter then lines each indent up with the braces you wrote.

Here’s the port as the teammate left it, on a day with no open bugs. The second console.log() line was added today, indented like the one above:

const BUGS_OPENED = 9;
const BUGS_CLOSED = 9;
const openBugs = BUGS_OPENED - BUGS_CLOSED;
console.log(`Open bugs: ${openBugs}`);

if (openBugs > 0)
  console.log("Please check the bug tracker.");
  console.log("Triage call at 9:30 tomorrow.");