Survey Results

Re: It depends

ghle19-Jan-09 14:39

ghle

19-Jan-09 14:39

Graham Shanks wrote:

For instance

if(statement is false)
  return ERROR_CODE;
else
{
  // Long complicated piece of code
}

in preference to

if(statement is true)
{
  // A really long bit of code
}
else
{
  // By the time you get here its hard to see the iff statement
  return ERROR_CODE;
}

This should be rewritten as follows for clarity and reduced code size.

if(statement is false)
{
  return ERROR_CODE;
}
// Long complicated piece of code

There is NO ELSE.

Gary

Re: It depends

tsdragon19-Jan-09 23:56

tsdragon

19-Jan-09 23:56

And THAT makes it even easier to read! Good catch!

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

Is this a trick question?

Michael Gage19-Jan-09 2:02

Michael Gage

19-Jan-09 2:02

if(areUsingTDD)
thisQuestionDoesntReallyMakeSense

Re: Is this a trick question?

peterchen19-Jan-09 2:34

peterchen

19-Jan-09 2:34

How does TDD fit in here?
You don't use coditions in TDD? Big Grin | :-D

Burning Chrome ^ | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist

Always FALSE first

Paul Darlington19-Jan-09 1:56

Paul Darlington

19-Jan-09 1:56

because where boolean types are supported only by integers then FALSE is always zero but TRUE can be 1, -1, 42 or anything that is not zero thus relying on TRUE to be one, and I have seen lots of old code that does, can lead to a world of pain and despair.

Re: Always FALSE first

MatrixDud19-Jan-09 5:20

MatrixDud

19-Jan-09 5:20

But in those cases it is better to test for non-zero instead of TRUE.

BOOL bAnswer = ReturnOfSomeFunction();
if( bAnswer != 0 ) {
do something;
}

Re: Always FALSE first

Paul Darlington19-Jan-09 5:25

Paul Darlington

19-Jan-09 5:25

That was exactly the point I tried to make. Tests on TRUE can be unreliable, Tests on FALSE that might well be stated as !FALSE or NOT FALSE can usually be relied upon. Hence my response to the survey test FALSE first.

Re: Always FALSE first

MatrixDud20-Jan-09 11:14

MatrixDud

20-Jan-09 11:14

But of course that only pertains to the Microsoft BOOL variable and not bool in C++. C did not actually have a bool value defined until C99. BOOL is actually an INT (sizeof(BOOL) = 4 or 8 on x64) whereas bool is a byte (sizeof(bool) = 1). Most languages use a built in type of bool that is one byte and only capable of being true or false (1 or 0). The proper use of BOOL is to test if it is non-zero for TRUE with most functions that return BOOL. Some functions that return BOOL will actually return more than just 2 possible answers (ie: 0 for success or a value representing a return or error code).

Re: Always FALSE first

PIEBALDconsult20-Jan-09 8:03

PIEBALDconsult

20-Jan-09 8:03

Then it depends on the language?

Out of ideas for surveys are we?

PedroMC19-Jan-09 1:35

PedroMC

19-Jan-09 1:35

PMC

And what about?

ittay ophir19-Jan-09 0:17

ittay ophir

19-Jan-09 0:17

if(statement is true)
{
  return "Yes";
}
else if(statement is false)
{
  return "No";
}
else
{  
  return "The meaning of life";
}

In what school this philosophy lies?

Ittay Ophir
ittay.ophir@gmail.com

Re: And what about?

Fabian Tamp19-Jan-09 0:44

Fabian Tamp

19-Jan-09 0:44

Don't know, but I can tell you that if you ever find your function returning "the meaning of life" then something has gone horribly horribly wrong. :-/

Re: And what about?

Gary Wheeler19-Jan-09 0:57

Gary Wheeler

19-Jan-09 0:57

A decent compiler would issue a diagnostic for that final else clause.

Software Zen: delete this;

Re: And what about?

Fatbuddha 119-Jan-09 1:01

Fatbuddha 1

19-Jan-09 1:01

return 42; Laugh | :laugh:

This would be it I think.
Cheers

You have the thought that modern physics just relay on assumptions, that somehow depends on a smile of a cat, which isn’t there.( Albert Einstein)

Re: And what about?

Corporal Agarn19-Jan-09 1:18

Corporal Agarn

19-Jan-09 1:18

6 X 7

Re: And what about?

Bartosz Bien19-Jan-09 1:38

Bartosz Bien

19-Jan-09 1:38

There are two elses and at least one if to nuke. Big Grin | :-D

Best regards,
BB
http://bartoszbien.com

Re: And what about?

MatrixDud19-Jan-09 5:27

MatrixDud

19-Jan-09 5:27

That's fuzzy logic and would mean that "statement" could not be a boolean variable having only two states. An example would be if you were testing to see if a string was equal to something. An exact match would be true and a partial match would be not false or true and a complete miss would be false.

Statement = "My dog has fleas"
if( Statement = "dog" ) //true
else if( Statement contains "dog" case insensitively) //fuzzy
else //false

What does it mean ?

MarcelloTurnbull18-Jan-09 23:47

MarcelloTurnbull

18-Jan-09 23:47

Behind every seemingly trivial task there are many schools of philosophy

Marcello Turnbull

Free time

Paul Watson19-Jan-09 2:25

Paul Watson

19-Jan-09 2:25

It means people have too much free time.

cheers,
Paul M. Watson.

Re: Free time

Paul Watson19-Jan-09 3:08

Paul Watson

19-Jan-09 3:08

How much free-time do you have?

cheers,
Paul M. Watson.

Re: Free time

MarcelloTurnbull19-Jan-09 3:38

MarcelloTurnbull

19-Jan-09 3:38

A little time for suggesting a survey but so much time for answering a question Smile | :)

Cheers

Marcello Turnbull

has to read like english

clearbrian118-Jan-09 23:14

clearbrian1

18-Jan-09 23:14

if somthingIsTrue()
do this
else
do that
-------------------- and not -----------------------
if NOT somethingIsTrue()
do something
ELSE
do something else
if it is true

forsooth! Smile | :)

Re: has to read like english

MatrixDud19-Jan-09 5:14

MatrixDud

19-Jan-09 5:14

Well

If NOT IsEOF
keep reading
else
clean up and close file, etc

Depends sometimes

hairy_hats18-Jan-09 21:54

hairy_hats

18-Jan-09 21:54

If there is code under both true and false conditions then I put the true block first, otherwise it's dependent...so I need to select two choices...

depends

Luc Pattyn18-Jan-09 21:01

Luc Pattyn

18-Jan-09 21:01

the normal case (and that better be the positive one) first, unless the normal case extends over more than a screen full or a page full AND the special case is extremely short.

BTW: I tried not to ask nor elicit a question, it says "Please DO NOT POST PROGRAMMING QUESTIONS HERE." WTF | :WTF:

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

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Option	Votes	%
Always `if (statement is true) then...`	429	20.32
Always `if (statement is false) then...`	57	2.70
It specifically depends on the situation	1,421	67.31
Random.	48	2.27
I"ve never actually thought about it	156	7.39
Total	2,111	100%

In which order do you test conditionals? [Edit]