title: Formatting of if Statements
body: <p><strong>This isn't a holy war, this isn't a question of "which is better".</strong></p>
  
  <p>What are the pros of using the following format for single statement if blocks.</p>
  
  <pre><code>if (x) print "x is true";
  
  if(x) 
      print "x is true";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As opposed to</p>
  
  <pre><code>if (x) { print "x is true"; }
  if(x) {
      print "x is true";    
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>If you format your single statement ifs without brackets</strong> or know a programmer that does, what led you/them to adopt this style in the first place?  I'm specifically interested in what benefits this has brought you.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update</strong>: As the most popular answer ignores the actual question (even if it presents the most sane advice), here's a roundup of the bracket-less pros.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Compactness</li>
  <li>More readable to some</li>
  <li>Brackets invoke scope, which has a theoretical overhead in some cases</li>
  </ol>