Variable shadowing

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In computer programming, variable shadowing occurs when a variable declared within a certain scope (decision block, method, or inner class) has the same name as a variable declared in an outer scope. At the level of identifiers (names, rather than variables), this is known as name masking. This outer variable is said to be shadowed by the inner variable, while the inner identifier is said to mask the outer identifier. This can lead to confusion, as it may be unclear which variable subsequent uses of the shadowed variable name refer to, which depends on the name resolution rules of the language.

One of the first languages to introduce variable shadowing was ALGOL, which first introduced blocks to establish scopes. It was also permitted by many of the derivative programming languages including C++ and Java.

The C# language breaks this tradition, allowing variable shadowing between an inner and an outer class, and between a method and its containing class, but not between an if-block and its containing method, or between case statements in a switch block.

Example

The following Lua code provides an example of variable shadowing, in multiple blocks.

v = 1 -- a global variable
do
  local v = v+1 -- creates new local that shadows global v
  print(v) --> 2
  do
    local v = v*2 -- another local that shadows
    print(v) --> 4
  end
  print(v) --> 2
end
print(v) --> 1

Variable shadowing

Example

See also