ASP.net C# Variable Declaration Inside IF Block

Question

I tried to use the following code in ASP.net C#:

@{
    var Host = Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_HOST"];
    if (Host.Contains("example.com")) {
        var Online = true;        
    }
    if (Online == true) {
        // Analytics Code
    }
}

But it returned error.

I found that variable Online cannot be used outside because its scope is limited to the IF statement in which it is declared.

Through trial and error I found that the following code works:

@{
    var Host = Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_HOST"];
    if (Host.Contains("example.com")) {
        Page.Online = true;        
    }
    if (Page.Online == true) {
        // Analytics Code
    }
}

Why is this that the second snippet works although it should not because variable scopes are expected to end at closing } of IF statement?

Thanks

Answer 1

Because in the 2nd statement, it does not declare a variable, but rather only set it's value. Page.Online was probably declared&initialized in the base class of the Page itself.