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  3. A question of indentation!

A question of indentation!

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  • E Eddie Velasquez

    Sometimes the following code structure:

    if(call1())
    {
    if(call2())
    {
    if(call3())
    {
    ...
    }
    }
    }

    Can be safely replaced by:

    if(!call1())
    return;
    if(!call2())
    return;
    if(!call3())
    return;

    If the semantics of the API I'm using is too C-ish, I'll wrap it up in C++ classes and this usually takes care of the excesive indentation and allows the use of the second code structure.


    Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
    Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

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    Nish Nishant
    wrote on last edited by
    #11

    Eddie Velasquez wrote: if(!call3()) return; I can't do that. Since I need to do some cleaning up as well :( Nish


    Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

    E C J B 4 Replies Last reply
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    • N Nish Nishant

      Eddie Velasquez wrote: if(!call3()) return; I can't do that. Since I need to do some cleaning up as well :( Nish


      Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

      E Offline
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      Eddie Velasquez
      wrote on last edited by
      #12

      Nish - Native CPian wrote: I can't do that. Since I need to do some cleaning up as well That's why you should wrap up the API in C++ classes and let destructors take care of the cleanup.


      Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
      Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

      N 1 Reply Last reply
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      • E Eddie Velasquez

        Daniel Turini wrote: That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Not necessarilly. Exceptions should only be used for reporting "exceptional" conditions and not all function returns mean and exceptional condition. e.g. In some cases an end-of-file is a normal situation, but if reading a header of a structured file it means that the file is corrupt and should raise an exception.


        Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
        Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

        D Offline
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        Daniel Turini
        wrote on last edited by
        #13

        I thought that in PGP SDK a return value of false indicates an error condition. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment

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        0
        • D Daniel Turini

          That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Two ways: encapsulating each call in a function or method, or:

          try
          {
          if (!call1)
          throw PGPException();

          if (!call2)
            throw PGPException();
          
          if (!call3)
            throw PGPException();
          

          }
          catch (PGPException)
          {
          }

          Crivo Automated Credit Assessment

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          Nish Nishant
          wrote on last edited by
          #14

          Daniel Turini wrote: That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Cool! I never thought of that! I just don't know much about exception handling though. What's this PGPException thing? Nish


          Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

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          • T Tomasz Sowinski

            if (call1() && call2() && call3() ....)
            {
            }

            Of course, you can insert line breaks between call[N]() and call[N+1](). Tomasz Sowinski -- http://www.shooltz.com

            - It's for protection
            - Protection from what? Zee Germans?

            N Offline
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            Nish Nishant
            wrote on last edited by
            #15

            Tomasz Sowinski wrote: if (call1() && call2() && call3() ....) That won;'t work. I am not supposed to call call-n unless call-n-1 returns true!


            Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

            T N 2 Replies Last reply
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            • P peterchen

              2 spaces for indentation, and if I get that deep I wonder if I'm wrong with my design, should break this down to some helper functions, etc. I wouldn't recommend your 2nd indentation style, as it suggests to be "indented correctly", but isn't. trick: instead of

              ok = hamlet();
              if (ok) {
              ok = ophelia();
              if (ok) {
              ok = polonius();
              if (ok) {
              ok = laertes();
              }
              }
              }

              I use

              do { // while(0)
              ok = hamlet();
              if (!ok) break;
              ok = ophelia();
              if (!ok) break;
              ....
              } while(0);

              not from the source book of clean and accepted code, but it helps a lot (esp. with a #define HBRK if (FAILED(hr)) break ) Peter


              The earth is not dying. It is being killed.

              N Offline
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              Nish Nishant
              wrote on last edited by
              #16

              peterchen wrote: do { // while(0) ok = hamlet(); if (!ok) break; ok = ophelia(); if (!ok) break; ....} while(0); Cool! I like your do while(0) idea. That's what I am gonna use I think :-) Nish


              Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

              J 1 Reply Last reply
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              • M Mauricio Ritter

                I use the first one with a comment at the closing bracket (so that I know from which call that closing bracket belongs.

                if(call1())
                {
                if(call2())
                {
                if(call3())
                {
                if(call4())
                {
                if((call5())
                {
                ...
                } /* Call5 */
                } /* Call4 */
                } /* Call3 */
                } /* Call2 */
                } /* Call1 */

                Mauricio Ritter - Brazil Sonorking now: 100.13560 Trank :beer: The alcohol is one of the greatest enemys of man, but a man who flee from his enemys is a coward. :beer:

                N Offline
                N Offline
                Nish Nishant
                wrote on last edited by
                #17

                Mauricio Ritter wrote: I use the first one with a comment at the closing bracket (so that I know from which call that closing bracket belongs. Good idea Mauricio! But my problem was with the indentation level going too deep! Nish


                Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • N Nish Nishant

                  Tomasz Sowinski wrote: if (call1() && call2() && call3() ....) That won;'t work. I am not supposed to call call-n unless call-n-1 returns true!


                  Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                  T Offline
                  T Offline
                  Tomasz Sowinski
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #18

                  Nish - Native CPian wrote: I am not supposed to call call-n unless call-n-1 returns true! Geez, Nish, you're disappointing me again :-D How can you think about earning almost $90K without basic C++ knowledge? Don't you know how logical operators work? call-n isn't going to be called when call-n-1 returns false. Tomasz Sowinski -- http://www.shooltz.com

                  - It's for protection
                  - Protection from what? Zee Germans?

                  N 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L Len Holgate

                    The indentation isn't the problem, you're just doing too much in one function ;) Personally I'd try and wrap the api in some classes and make sure that each method does one clearly defined thing. I'd be inclided to make these classes report errors via exceptions, so at the user code level you just have straight line code. Len Holgate www.jetbyte.com The right code, right now.

                    N Offline
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                    Nish Nishant
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #19

                    Len Holgate wrote: The indentation isn't the problem, you're just doing too much in one function The problem is that each of these functions require something from the previous function. For example if fn_1 allocs something, then fn_2 uses that and allocs something else used by fn_3 and so on. On failure at any point I also have to call the respective deallocing PGP functions in reverse order Nish


                    Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                    L 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • E Eddie Velasquez

                      Daniel Turini wrote: That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Not necessarilly. Exceptions should only be used for reporting "exceptional" conditions and not all function returns mean and exceptional condition. e.g. In some cases an end-of-file is a normal situation, but if reading a header of a structured file it means that the file is corrupt and should raise an exception.


                      Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                      Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      Christian Graus
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #20

                      An exception does not necessarily mean an error. Christian I am completely intolerant of stupidity. Stupidity is, of course, anything that doesn't conform to my way of thinking. - Jamie Hale - 29/05/2002

                      E 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • N Nish Nishant

                        Daniel Turini wrote: That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Cool! I never thought of that! I just don't know much about exception handling though. What's this PGPException thing? Nish


                        Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                        C Offline
                        C Offline
                        Christian Graus
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #21

                        Try/Thow/catch ( and finally in C#, dunno about C++ ) are the obvious way to deal with your situation. Christian I am completely intolerant of stupidity. Stupidity is, of course, anything that doesn't conform to my way of thinking. - Jamie Hale - 29/05/2002

                        N 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • E Eddie Velasquez

                          Nish - Native CPian wrote: I can't do that. Since I need to do some cleaning up as well That's why you should wrap up the API in C++ classes and let destructors take care of the cleanup.


                          Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                          Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                          N Offline
                          N Offline
                          Nish Nishant
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #22

                          Eddie Velasquez wrote: That's why you should wrap up the API in C++ classes and let destructors take care of the cleanup. Yeah, I gotta do that. I really must! I am not a naturally OOPish guy, you know! Nish :-)


                          Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                          E 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • E Eddie Velasquez

                            Daniel Turini wrote: That's why exception handling was invented. Try throwing exceptions instead of nesting if's. Not necessarilly. Exceptions should only be used for reporting "exceptional" conditions and not all function returns mean and exceptional condition. e.g. In some cases an end-of-file is a normal situation, but if reading a header of a structured file it means that the file is corrupt and should raise an exception.


                            Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                            Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                            N Offline
                            N Offline
                            Nish Nishant
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #23

                            Well, the indentation of this thread has gone totally haywire. All my replies are appearing under the wrong persons :( Nish


                            Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • D Daniel Turini

                              I thought that in PGP SDK a return value of false indicates an error condition. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment

                              E Offline
                              E Offline
                              Eddie Velasquez
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #24

                              Daniel Turini wrote: thought that in PGP SDK a return value of false indicates an error condition. Well, I was talking in a general sense and didn't realize you were referring to the PGP SDK in particular. My bad.


                              Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                              Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                              N 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • C Christian Graus

                                Try/Thow/catch ( and finally in C#, dunno about C++ ) are the obvious way to deal with your situation. Christian I am completely intolerant of stupidity. Stupidity is, of course, anything that doesn't conform to my way of thinking. - Jamie Hale - 29/05/2002

                                N Offline
                                N Offline
                                Nish Nishant
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #25

                                Christian Graus wrote: Try/Thow/catch ( and finally in C#, dunno about C++ ) are the obvious way to deal with your situation. I don't even know how to implement exceptions :-( Might have to do some reading Actually after reading all the suggestions, I liked peterchens do{} while(0) idea :-) Nish


                                Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                                J 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • T Tomasz Sowinski

                                  Nish - Native CPian wrote: I am not supposed to call call-n unless call-n-1 returns true! Geez, Nish, you're disappointing me again :-D How can you think about earning almost $90K without basic C++ knowledge? Don't you know how logical operators work? call-n isn't going to be called when call-n-1 returns false. Tomasz Sowinski -- http://www.shooltz.com

                                  - It's for protection
                                  - Protection from what? Zee Germans?

                                  N Offline
                                  N Offline
                                  Nish Nishant
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #26

                                  Tomasz Sowinski wrote: Geez, Nish, you're disappointing me again How can you think about earning almost $90K without basic C++ knowledge? Don't you know how logical operators work? call-n isn't going to be called when call-n-1 returns false. Nope! Not with PGP. When I wrote the original post I simplified things. PGP calls return a PGPError struct and I have to call IsPGPError() on it to find out whether it's an error :-( Not a true/false thing at all!!! Nish


                                  Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                                  T 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C Christian Graus

                                    An exception does not necessarily mean an error. Christian I am completely intolerant of stupidity. Stupidity is, of course, anything that doesn't conform to my way of thinking. - Jamie Hale - 29/05/2002

                                    E Offline
                                    E Offline
                                    Eddie Velasquez
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #27

                                    Christian Graus wrote: An exception does not necessarily mean an error. An exception should always indicate an error... that's why they're called "exceptions"... because they're exceptional. :) Or did I miss something in your post?


                                    Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                                    Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                                    N C 2 Replies Last reply
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                                    • N Nish Nishant

                                      Tomasz Sowinski wrote: Geez, Nish, you're disappointing me again How can you think about earning almost $90K without basic C++ knowledge? Don't you know how logical operators work? call-n isn't going to be called when call-n-1 returns false. Nope! Not with PGP. When I wrote the original post I simplified things. PGP calls return a PGPError struct and I have to call IsPGPError() on it to find out whether it's an error :-( Not a true/false thing at all!!! Nish


                                      Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                                      T Offline
                                      T Offline
                                      Tomasz Sowinski
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #28

                                      Well, it seems that you need some kind of object wrapper over PGPError. The object could convert that to true/false or even throw some exception. Tomasz Sowinski -- http://www.shooltz.com

                                      - It's for protection
                                      - Protection from what? Zee Germans?

                                      N 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • E Eddie Velasquez

                                        Daniel Turini wrote: thought that in PGP SDK a return value of false indicates an error condition. Well, I was talking in a general sense and didn't realize you were referring to the PGP SDK in particular. My bad.


                                        Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                                        Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                                        N Offline
                                        N Offline
                                        Nish Nishant
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #29

                                        Eddie Velasquez wrote: Well, I was talking in a general sense and didn't realize you were referring to the PGP SDK in particular. My bad. PGP calls return a PGPError and you need to call IsPGPError(...) on it to figure out whether it was an error or not. Some cases you actually get an error and it's not really an error overall! Like some encryption algorithms won't work when it's an RSA key but you are supposed to ignore that since it won't cause any problem Nish


                                        Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

                                        J 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • E Eddie Velasquez

                                          Christian Graus wrote: An exception does not necessarily mean an error. An exception should always indicate an error... that's why they're called "exceptions"... because they're exceptional. :) Or did I miss something in your post?


                                          Eddie Velasquez: A Squeezed Devil
                                          Checkout General Guidelines for C# Class Implementation

                                          N Offline
                                          N Offline
                                          Nish Nishant
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #30

                                          Eddie Velasquez wrote: An exception should always indicate an error... That's what I also thought. But PGP errors are often not errors. I have explained in one of the mis-placed posts here. I don't wanna re-type it :-) The indendation of this thread is now worse than any indentation I could have produced :-) Nish


                                          Regards, Nish Native CPian. Born and brought up on CP. With the CP blood in him.

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