Is there a way to ignore the 'Unreachable statement' error?

Question

Is it possible to somehow ignore this error? I find it much easier to just put return in front of the code I don't want to run than to comment it (when the comments overlap and behave badly)...

why! o why! writing a code which your fellow programmer hate you for?! — Nishant, Jan 31 '12 at 10:43
@Nishant: I often use `if (2 > 1) return;` for debugging purposes. — Denis Tulskiy, Jan 31 '12 at 11:37
@Nishant It's just for debugging, I don't leave chunks of code lying around unless I directly work with them. — Martin Melka, Jan 31 '12 at 11:48

score 115 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 25 '15 at 14:52

115

No. It's a compile time error. So you must get rid of it before running your class.

What I usually do is put a fake if statement in front of it. Something like:

if(true)
    return;
// unwanted code follows. no errors.
i++;
j++;

With this code, you will not get a Unreachable statement error. And you will get what you want.

edited Jun 25 '15 at 14:52

Thomas Vos

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answered Jan 31 '12 at 10:40

Pablo Santa Cruz

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You can replace `if (1==1)` with `if (true)` since 1==1 is always true. – Steve Kuo Jan 31 '12 at 16:57
3

coming from c++ it feels a bit odd how java tries to protect you and holds your hand and then sometimes pulls you in the wrong direction. Nice workaround, it also has the advantage that anyhow a `if (true)` signals that there is something fishy going on and the danger of removing it later is a bit reduced – 463035818_is_not_an_ai May 16 '18 at 11:38

Dmytro Sokolyuk · Answer 2 · 2018-12-13T10:58:32.117

4

33. if (1==1) return;
34. System.out.println("Hello world!");

It works in other languages too. But ByteCode without row 34.

edited Dec 13 '18 at 10:58

answered Sep 09 '16 at 09:07

Dmytro Sokolyuk

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Javac seems to be fine with `if (true)...`. The compiler will still remove the conditional as a builtin base level optimization, but will not trigger an Unreachable Code error. – alife Feb 16 '22 at 01:24

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

3

It isn't possible to ignore this error since it is an error according to the Java Language Specification.

You might also want to look at this post: Unreachable code error vs. dead code warning in Java under Eclipse?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Jan 31 '12 at 10:45

Dawood

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 22 '16 at 11:54

0

If you want disable/enable certain piece of code many times trick from old C may help you:

some_code();
more_code();
// */

/*
some_code();
more_code();
// */

Now you need only to write /* at the beginning

answered Jun 22 '16 at 11:54

csharpfolk

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score -12 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 31 '12 at 11:19

you have to fix that unreachable code.

public void display(){
  return; //move the return statement to appropriate place
  int i;
}

compiler will not compile your source code. you have to take care of your source code that every line is reachable to compiler.

Is there a way to ignore the 'Unreachable statement' error?

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