Odd return behaviour

Question

okay, consider the following example:
public class Oops {
     public static void main(String args[]){
1:          String oops;
2:          return;
3:          System.out.println(oops);
}we get compile error at 3 saying unreachable statement .. fair enough.
now, consider this:
public class Oops {
     public static void main(String args[]){
1:          String oops;
2:          if(true) return;
3:          System.out.println(oops);
}we have modified two and now there is no errors whats-so-ever.
However, the odd behaviour hecomes obvious if we comment out line 2 where we will get "variable oops might not have been initialized." ... so it would seem that it can recognize that if(true) return; will not let the program reach 3 and hence doesn't care if oops is initialized but why don't we get a similiar error as in example one?

Answer 1

I don't see anything bizarre about this question. What
are you referring to?Perhaps 'bizarre' was a poor choice of words. It's just that I recall silkm posting a rather similar question before (a question about how the compiler/jvm handles thing rather than what API can one use to make foo.
No, that's not a possibility. The JLS explains exactly
why this behavior occurs:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/
tatements.doc.html#236365
The reason that the second example compiles is so that
you can have code that is conditionally compiled such
as debugging statements. It's not bizarre at all, it's
entirely pragmatic and practical.Yes, of course, makes sense. (Although the possibility of a compiler optimizing it out is flashed there.)