[RESOLVED] Strangley placed else

[Yadrif]

In this code snippet what does the line (line 20) that reads

else ;

cause to the flow of the program, if anything? If it does nothing why would someone have it there?

	mode = -1;

	while ( /* read a line from a file */ )
	{
		if (mode<0)
		{
			// Do something for when mode < 0
		}
		else if (mode==0)
		{
			if ( /* some condition */ )
			{
				mode=1;
				continue;
			}
			else if ( /* some other condition */ )
			{
				// Code for some other condition
			}
			else ;  <<-- What does this do?
		}
		else // mode is 1
		{
			// A lot of code for mode 1
		} // end mode=1 code
	}

	// Code after the while loop

Thanks.

[ninja9578]

It does nothing. Most likely there to remind the programmer that there is other cases besides the two specified.

[Yadrif]

Thanks very much.

[S_M_A]

Some coding rules (Misra for instance) requires that all if-statements are complete i.e. there should always be an else even when it's not needed.