scoping-variables-with-a-block-statement.md

Scoping Variables With A Block Statement

A solid way to keep code readable and easy to understand is to ditch the terse one-liners in favor of breaking things up across multiple lines and using self-documenting variable names. This isn't all good though. Each new variable that is defined is a handle on some data that can be misused later in the syntax scope.

JavaScript has a nice way of being clear about the scope of certain variables:

let parsedDate;
{
  let [month, day, year] = input.split('-');
  parsedDate = new Date(year, month, day);
}

// do something with parsedDate

The month, day, and year variables are scoped to the { ... } which is a block statement. This helps communicate and enforce that those variables are only to be used in that very specific context. Other developers and our future selves won't be able to erroneously use those variables.

Of course, breaking out a function is another way of accomplishing this. Sequestering code in a different part of the file is not always the best answer though. Sometimes you want it locally fenced off. For those times, use a block statement.