unreachable_statements.md

Unreachable Statements

If Java can figure out that some line of code is unreachable because it will always come after a return, then it will not run your code.

void doThing() {
    System.out.println("A");
    return;
    // unreachable statement
    System.out.println("B");
}

void main() {
    doThing();
}

Java is easy to trick though.¹

void doThing() {
    System.out.println("A");
    if (true) {
        return;
    }
    System.out.println("B");
}

void main() {
    doThing();
}

Footnotes

1. This will always return before the println, but Java chooses to not figure that out. It can't be smart enough to see through every if, so it doesn't try for any of them. ↩