The scope of local variables should be kept to a minimum (Effective Java Item 29). By doing so, you increase the readability and maintainability of your code and reduce the likelihood of error. Each variable should be declared in the innermost block that encloses all uses of the variable.
Local variables should be declared at the point they are first used. Nearly every local variable declaration should contain an initializer. If you don’t yet have enough information to initialize a variable sensibly, you should postpone the declaration until you do.
One exception to this rule concerns try-catch statements. If a variable is initialized with the return value of a method that throws a checked exception, it must be initialized inside a try block. If the value must be used outside of the try block, then it must be declared before the try block, where it cannot yet be sensibly initialized:
// Instantiate class cl, which represents some sort of Set
Set s = null;
try {
s = (Set) cl.newInstance();
} catch(IllegalAccessException e) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(cl + " not accessible");
} catch(InstantiationException e) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(cl + " not instantiable");
}
// Exercise the set
s.addAll(Arrays.asList(args));
But even this case can be avoided by encapsulating the try-catch block in a method:
Set createSet(Class cl) {
// Instantiate class cl, which represents some sort of Set
try {
return (Set) cl.newInstance();
} catch(IllegalAccessException e) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(cl + " not accessible");
} catch(InstantiationException e) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(cl + " not instantiable");
}
}
...
// Exercise the set
Set s = createSet(cl);
s.addAll(Arrays.asList(args));
Loop variables should be declared in the for statement itself unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise:
for (int i = 0; i n; i++) {
doSomething(i);
}
and
for (Iterator i = c.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ) {
doSomethingElse(i.next());
}