LogFAQs > #877044063

you're free to omit brackets for if and else statements. however, the compiler will only execute the statement immediately following the conditional

if (true) cout << "it's true"
else cout << "it's false"

It's considered somewhat distasteful, especially because it can lead to code that either doesn't behave like you intended or is invalid:

if (true)
cout << "this will execute as part of the conditional";
cout << "this is NOT considered part of the conditional and will always execute";

or

if (true)
doSomething();
doSomethingElse();
else
cout << "this else statement is considered invalid because it doesn't have a matching if"

in general, I always include brackets unless it's a simple one liner