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The goto-less goto!

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25 Jan 2011CPOL 41.8K   4   33
Alternative 2 can be enhanced by returning a booleen value if we want to code something similar to the original example. A (early) return value of false would indicate a failure which could then be handle by checking the function result.if (!DoAllActions()){ ...
Alternative 2 can be enhanced by returning a booleen value if we want to code something similar to the original example. A (early) return value of false would indicate a failure which could then be handle by checking the function result.

if (!DoAllActions())
{
   DoFailedCleanup();
}

bool DoAllActions()
{
   if (condition1_fails)
      return false;
   if (condition2_fails)
      return false;
   ...
   if(!conditionN_fails)
      retrun false;
   PerformActionOnAllSuccess();
   DoNormalCleanup();
   return true;
}


Alternatively, if each action are independant, a variation like this might be more appropriate:
if (DoAction1() && 
    DoAction2() && 
    ... && 
    DoActionN())
{
   PerformActionOnAllSuccess();
   DoNormalCleanup();
}
else 
{
   DoFailedCleanup();
}

bool DoAction1()
{
   bool condition1_fails = ...;
   return !condition1_fails;
}
...

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
Canada Canada
Programmer at Maid LABS from 2003 (www.maidlabs.com)

Programmer-Analyst at Viasat Geo Technoligies from 1995 to 2002 (www.viasat-geo.com).

I have studied at École Polytechnique de Montréal in computer engineering.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
pasztorpisti26-Aug-13 9:34
pasztorpisti26-Aug-13 9:34 
GeneralRe: Surely anyone can program whatever he wants for himself and ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron7-Apr-11 6:07
professionalWolfgang_Baron7-Apr-11 6:07 
GeneralRe: Clearly we have difference experiences - and debuggers. One ... Pin
EFEaglehouse7-Apr-11 4:05
EFEaglehouse7-Apr-11 4:05 
GeneralRe: The first person wanting to add a debug statement at the end... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron7-Apr-11 1:45
professionalWolfgang_Baron7-Apr-11 1:45 
GeneralSorry, but in C++ at least, not being able to add a debug st... Pin
jefito12-Apr-11 3:02
jefito12-Apr-11 3:02 
GeneralMultiple returns look clear only to those, who have written ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron9-Feb-11 5:32
professionalWolfgang_Baron9-Feb-11 5:32 
GeneralRe: Never say never. Sometimes the clearest code is the shortest... Pin
EFEaglehouse5-Apr-11 4:32
EFEaglehouse5-Apr-11 4:32 
GeneralIn fact, with this pattern where the complex function is spl... Pin
Philippe Mori9-Feb-11 5:00
Philippe Mori9-Feb-11 5:00 
GeneralReason for my vote of 1 People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron9-Feb-11 4:35
professionalWolfgang_Baron9-Feb-11 4:35 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti26-Aug-13 9:27
pasztorpisti26-Aug-13 9:27 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 3:08
professionalWolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 3:08 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 3:24
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 3:24 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 5:10
professionalWolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 5:10 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 5:39
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 5:39 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 13:08
professionalWolfgang_Baron7-Oct-13 13:08 
Ouch, now we are really drifting away from the original topic. The usage of exceptions is another hot topic we probably can talk about for ages ...

I can see you are pretty convinced about your style and you can see, that I am pretty convinced about my style, so lets just agree on not agreeing before we start throwing (pun intended) things at each other. At the end of the day, it's just important that the software does what it is supposed to do and I can only try to share the positive development I've seen in code (readability, maintainability etc.), where multiple returns have been removed. You seem to prefer the kind of spaghetti like sequences of code with lots of return statements, because they are easily written without having to think too much before hand. Whoever is still reading this should be invited to try out both and choose for themselves.
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 22:37
pasztorpisti7-Oct-13 22:37 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 14:59
professionalWolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 14:59 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Philippe Mori9-Oct-13 17:35
Philippe Mori9-Oct-13 17:35 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti9-Oct-13 22:07
pasztorpisti9-Oct-13 22:07 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Philippe Mori10-Oct-13 2:24
Philippe Mori10-Oct-13 2:24 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti10-Oct-13 2:46
pasztorpisti10-Oct-13 2:46 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 22:29
professionalWolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 22:29 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Philippe Mori10-Oct-13 2:36
Philippe Mori10-Oct-13 2:36 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
pasztorpisti9-Oct-13 22:18
pasztorpisti9-Oct-13 22:18 
GeneralRe: Reason for my vote of 1People who put more than one return ... Pin
Wolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 22:59
professionalWolfgang_Baron9-Oct-13 22:59 

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