Doubt in if()

[Uttara Rishi]

Hi Ranchers,

Please have a look at the following code....

 
 public final class Test4  {
 
class Inner {
 
void test() {
 
if (Test4.this.flag); {   [B]//Line 1[/B]
 
sample();
 
}
 
} 
 
}
 
private boolean flag = false;
 
public void sample() {
 
System.out.println("Sample");
 
}
 
public Test4() {
 
(new Inner()).test();
 
}
 
public static void main(String args []) {
 
new Test4();
 
} 
 
}
 
  

Output is : Sample

My doubt is why are we not getting a complier error on Line 1 (because of the semicolon)?

Thanks in advance.

Uttara Rishi.

[sandhi mridul]

As semicolon is there after if statement it does not have any effect on the program. It will remain as it is in the program and also will not not give any compiling and runtime error.
Because the if statement get terminated due to semicolon.

[ February 29, 2008: Message edited by: sandhi mridul ]
[ February 29, 2008: Message edited by: sandhi mridul ]

[Subhankar Kushary]

The

 if (Test4.this.flag);   

is just a blank if statement which does nothing.
So when

  (new Inner()).test();  

is called it calls the test method,

if (Test4.this.flag); 

does nothing [if(false);] and then sample() method outputs the "Sample".
Here sample() method is not conditional,it executes always irrespective of the flag.

[Uttara Rishi]

Thanks guys that helped.