The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

BLOCKS AND STATEMENTS Statements 14.5
ContinueStatement
ReturnStatement
SynchronizedStatement
ThrowStatement
TryStatement
StatementNoShortIf:
StatementWithoutTrailingSubstatement
LabeledStatementNoShortIf
IfThenElseStatementNoShortIf
WhileStatementNoShortIf
ForStatementNoShortIf
The following are repeated from §14.9 to make the presentation here clearer:
IfThenStatement:
if ( Expression ) Statement
IfThenElseStatement:
if ( Expression ) StatementNoShortIf else Statement
IfThenElseStatementNoShortIf:
if ( Expression ) StatementNoShortIf else StatementNoShortIf
Statements are thus grammatically divided into two categories: those that
might end in an if statement that has no else clause (a “short if statement”) and
those that definitely do not. Only statements that definitely do not end in a short
if statement may appear as an immediate substatement before the keyword else
in an if statement that does have an else clause.
This simple rule prevents the “dangling else” problem. The execution behavior
of a statement with the “no short if” restriction is identical to the execution
behavior of the same kind of statement without the “no short if” restriction; the
distinction is drawn purely to resolve the syntactic difficulty.
DRAFT
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