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JScript Statements

A JScript program is a collection of statements. A JScript statement, which is equivalent to a complete sentence in a natural language, combines expressions that perform one complete task.

Using Statements

A statement consists of one or more expressions, keywords, or operators (symbols). Typically, a statement is contained within a single line, although two or more statements can appear on the same line if they are separated with semicolons. In addition, most statements can span multiple lines. The exceptions are:

  • The postfix increment and decrement operators must appear on the same line as their argument. For example, x++ and i--.

  • The continue and break keywords must appear on the same line as their label. For example, continue label1 and break label2.

  • The return and throw keywords must appear on the same line as their expression. For example, return (x+y), and throw "Error 42".

  • A custom attribute must appear on the same line as the declaration it is modifying, unless it is preceded by a modifier. For example, myattribute class myClass.

Although explicit termination of statements at the end of a line is not required, most of the JScript examples provided here are explicitly terminated for clarity. This is done with the semicolon (;), which is the JScript statement termination character. Here are two examples of JScript statements.

var aBird = "Robin"; // Assign the text "Robin" to the variable aBird.
var today = new Date(); // Assign today's date to the variable today.

A group of JScript statements surrounded by braces ({}) is called a block. Statements within a block can generally be treated as a single statement. This means you can use blocks in most places that JScript expects a lone statement. Notable exceptions include the headers of for and while loops. The following example illustrates a typical for loop:

var i : int = 0;
var x : double = 2;
var a = new Array(4);
for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
   x *= x;
   a[i] = x;
}

Notice that the individual statements within the block end with semicolons, but the block itself does not.

Generally, functions, conditionals, and classes use blocks. Notice that unlike C++ and most other languages, JScript does not consider a block to be a new scope; only functions, classes, static initializers, and catch blocks create a new scope.

In the following example, the first statement begins the definition of a function that consists of an if...else sequence of three statements. Following that block is a statement that is not enclosed in the braces of the function block. Therefore, the last statement is not part of the function definition.

function FeetToMiles(feet, cnvType) {
   if (cnvType == "NM")
      return( (feet / 6080) + " nautical miles");
   else if (cnvType == "M")
      return( (feet / 5280) + " statute miles");
   else
      return ("Invalid unit of measure");
}
var mradius = FeetToMiles(52800, "M");

See Also

Reference

class Statement

function Statement

if...else Statement

static Statement

Other Resources

JScript Reference

JScript Language Tour