Microsoft KB Archive/58559

From BetaArchive Wiki
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Knowledge Base


Article ID: 58559

Article Last Modified on 6/14/2006



APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Service Pack 5
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 Professional Edition
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 1.51
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 Professional Edition
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition



This article was previously published under Q58559


SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft C, compiler errors C2143 and C2144 are defined as follows:

C2143: syntax error : missing 'token1' before 'token2'

C2144: syntax error : missing 'token' before type 'type'

CAUSE

You may receive this error message if your program places executable code before a data declaration, an acceptable practice in Kernighan-and-Ritchie C. This practice has been outlawed in later versions of the ANSI drafts.

This error message will normally occur if a required closing curly brace (}), right parenthesis [)], or semicolon (;) is missing.

RESOLUTION

Placing all data declarations before all executable code corrects the programming error.

void main( )
{
   int i;
   printf( "Hello world!\n" );
   {
      int j;
   }
}
                

Note In the C++ language, it is legal to declare data within a block of executable code.

MORE INFORMATION

Sample code

The following code demonstrates this error message.

/* Compile options needed: none
*/ 

#include <stdio.h>

void main(void)
{
   int i;
   printf("Hello World\n");
   int j;
}
                

Compiling this code with a version of Microsoft C prior to C/C++ 7.0 will return the following error message:

C2144: syntax error : missing ';' before type 'int'

C/C++ version 7.0 and Visual C/C++ issue the following error:

C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'


Additional query words: 8.00 8.00c 9.00 9.10

Keywords: kberrmsg kbtshoot kbvc152fix kbprb kbcompiler KB58559