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I don't see any advantages of declaring variables up front. Not all variables should be at the function scope. Often I have a local variable that is only used inside one branch of a conditional, why should I declare that at the top? Declaring things up front also separates the type from the usage, which makes things harder to read and takes up twice as many lines in some cases.

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Maybe I miscommunicated; I'm not against declaring variables at scopes smaller than the function - I declare variables at the top of conditional branches as well. I still don't buy the 'twice as many lines' reason for mixing assignment and declaration.

You should be using const variables as much as possible (and in general preferring immutable data). In that case assignment and declaration _must_ take place at the same location.

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There's an upvote button to agree with a comment, no need to post a single word. Generally, terse answers aren't really appreciated here (unless they're very good).

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