Bracket highlighting is especially useful for programming languages that use either brackets æ(Æ and æ)Æ or curly braces æ{Æ and æ}Æ to organize code blocks and expressions. Often typing compound expressions and code blocks can leave the programmer in doubt as to which end bracket or brace corresponds with which starting bracket or brace. Consider the following sample text:
if ((a = 1) and (((b = a) or (b > 1)) and (c = 2))
Bracket highlighting allows the programmer to quickly determine if the expression is complete, by highlighting the corresponding open bracket for each close bracket highlighted. For example, placing the cursor above the last bracket in the example expression:
Or when typing a closing bracket at the end of the example expression:
This allows the programmer the luxury of a visual indication that an expression that uses enclosing brackets is complete.