In JavaScript, one should declare all variables at the beginning of the function to mitigate the risk of mistakes related to the fact that the scope of variables is a function. The following code illustrates this non-intuitive scope by actually printing "Hello, World" to the console:
var demo = function () {
if (false) {
var hello = "Hello, World";
}
console.log(hello);
};
Similarly, in VB6 (but not in VB.NET), the variables have a scope of a function/sub, which also means that they would better be declared at the top of the function/sub block.
C, C++, Java, C#, Python or PHP don't have any reason to move the declaration of variables to the top of the method/function: instead, variables are preferably declared close to the location where they are used.
Are there languages where it is better to declare the variables at the top of the function-type block (instead of declaring them as close as possible to the location where they are used) for a reason other than function-level scoping?
In other words, is the non-intuitive scoping similar to the one used by VB6 and JavaScript the only reason to move the declaration of variables at the top of a function?