Why can't variables be declared in a switch statement?

Case statements are only 'labels'. This means the compiler will interpret this as a jump directly to the label. The problem here is one of scope.

Your curly brackets define the scope as everything inside the 'switch' statement. This means that you are left with a scope where a jump will be performed further into the code skipping the initialization. The correct way to handle this is to define a scope specific to that case statement and define your variable within it.

Ok. Just to clarify this strictly has nothing to do with the declaration. It relates only to "jumping over the initialization" (ISO C++ '03 6.7/3).

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