PRB: Executable Code Between Declarations Causes C2143 or C214

ID: Q58559

The information in this article applies to:

The Microsoft C/C++ Compiler (CL.EXE)
- Microsoft C for MS-DOS, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0ax
- Microsoft C for OS/2, versions 6.0, 6.0a
- Microsoft C/C++ for MS-DOS, version 7.0
- Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, 16-bit edition, versions 1.0, 1.5, 1.51
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft C, compiler errors C2143 and C2144 are defined as follows:

C2143: syntax error : missing 'token1' before 'token2'

C2144: syntax error : missing 'token' before type 'type'

CAUSE

You may receive this error message if your program places executable code before a data declaration, an acceptable practice in Kernighan-and-Ritchie C. This practice has been outlawed in later versions of the ANSI drafts.

This error message will normally occur if a required closing curly brace (}), right parenthesis [)], or semicolon (;) is missing.

RESOLUTION

Placing all data declarations before all executable code corrects the programming error.


void main( )
{
   int i;
   printf( "Hello world!\n" );
   {
      int j;
   }
}

NOTE: In the C++ language, it is legal to declare data within a block of executable code.

MORE INFORMATION

The following code demonstrates this error message:

Sample Code


/* Compile options needed: none
*/ 

#include <stdio.h>

void main(void)
{
   int i;
   printf("Hello World\n");
   int j;
}

Compiling this code with a version of Microsoft C prior to C/C++ 7.0 will return the following error message:

C2144: syntax error : missing ';' before type 'int'

C/C++ version 7.0 and Visual C/C++ issue the following error:

C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'

Additional query words: 8.00 8.00c 9.00 9.10

Keywords : kbCompiler kbVC100 kbVC150 kbVC151 kbVC152fix kbVC210 kbVC400 kbVC500 kbVC600
Version : 6.0 6.0a 7.0 1.0 1.5 1.51 2.0 2.
Platform :
Issue type : kbprb