This odd Java code compiles without errors

Question

Here is an interesting piece of code I came across: It looks quite strange but it does compile.

public static void main(String[] args) {        
    http://servername:port/index.html
    System.out.println("Hello strange world");
}

Thoughts?

Ah that makes sense. And Yep. this appear to be a dupe. thanks tomato. — cmd, Sep 21 '13 at 17:52

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

`http:` is a label. The rest is just an inline comment `//`.

One can ask, why do we have labels in Java?

First thought: goto. But, goto implementation has been removed from Java as needless. The only thing which stayed is a reserved keyword goto. Read more here.

So, what's the usage of labels?

Labels can be used with break statement. Example from documentation, with search label:

class BreakWithLabelDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        int[][] arrayOfInts = { 
            { 32, 87, 3, 589 },
            { 12, 1076, 2000, 8 },
            { 622, 127, 77, 955 }
        };
        int searchfor = 12;

        int i;
        int j = 0;
        boolean foundIt = false;

    search:
        for (i = 0; i < arrayOfInts.length; i++) {
            for (j = 0; j < arrayOfInts[i].length; j++) {
                if (arrayOfInts[i][j] == searchfor) {
                    foundIt = true;
                    break search;
                }
            }
        }

        if (foundIt) {
            System.out.println("Found " + searchfor + " at " + i + ", " + j);
        } else {
            System.out.println(searchfor + " not in the array");
        }
    }
}

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 21 '13 at 17:48

3

A label followed by an inline coment

Yes, Java has label

public static void main(String[] args) {
    hello:
}

And of course online comments

public static void main(String[] args) {
    int i; // this is a comment.
}

answered Sep 21 '13 at 17:48

SJuan76

24,532
6
47
87

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '13 at 17:50

0

http: is a label

//servername:port/index.html is a comment.

answered Sep 21 '13 at 17:50

james_bond

6,778
3
28
34

This odd Java code compiles without errors

3 Answers3

http: is a label. The rest is just an inline comment //.

`http:` is a label. The rest is just an inline comment `//`.