#1,103 – A Block Defines Both Scope and Declaration Space

• Scope is the region of code in which you can refer to a named entity using its unqualified name.
• Declaration space is a region of code within which you can’t declare two entities having the same name

A block of statements defines both a new scope and a new declaration space.

In the code below, the variable msg is declared within the block of statements following the if statement.

    public class MyClass
    {
        public void AMethod()
        {
            if (DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Thursday)
            {
                // Can define variables within this block
                string msg = "Hi";
                Console.WriteLine("{0}, it's Thursday. ", msg);
            }

            // ERROR: The name 'msg' does not exist in the current context
            Console.WriteLine(msg);
        }
    }

The block defines a new scope–the variable msg can be referred to by name anywhere within the block (after the declaration).  This block also defines a declaration space–you can only declare one variable named msg within this block.