In all the C, C++, and Obj-C tutorials I have read they say all vareabls need to be declared at the top of a function (or be global) or there will be problems. Now I can think of several areas where this doesn't apply:
File I/O: I always declare the fstream variable when I use it and have always been fine.
For Loops: It makes you declare a variable in them for testing

Now are these special eccseptions or is that (declaring variables at top of function) just a heed practice?

eccseptions... hmmm... even I, after consuming a lot of beer, I know that it is spelt as "exceptions".

As for the rest of your post, there are aliens looking over your shoulder.











Trust me! It's true!

I typed this whole thing on my iPod, there will be typos.

C89 (gcc -std=c89, or -std=c90, or -ansi) requires all declarations to be at the beginning of a block, C++ and C99 both support declarations anywhere within a function.

For C++, that would be a major flaw in the tutorial.

For ANSI C, it is roughly correct.

Best practice is declaring variables with the narrowest scope. The compiler's optimizer often fails to deduce a narrow scope (though it tries) and much better asm code can be generated when the optimizer knows about narrow scope. But the more important reason is to help the maintenance programmer. When you want to correct or enhance a module, obvious narrow scopes for most of the variables make understanding the code much easier.

In C++, it is also best practice, when possible, to delay declaring each variable until the initial value for that variable is available. There are many situations in which having a default constructor for a type is a problem. Without a default constructor, you need some initial value to declare the variable. It is confusing and inefficient to declare a dummy initial value that isn't used. Even with a default constructor (or POD objects not needing construction) the declaration without the initial value can be confusing to both the maintenance programmer and the optimizer.