How would you code it?
-
malharone wrote:
Performance: string concat. is heavy, which does not happen in the string.format
That's what I thought as well. Although the OP stated that the concat. approach was more efficient, but I'm not so sure I buy his reasoning for it. I think he's fishing for "5" votes. ;) BDF
-
Andy Brummer wrote:
I find 1 more readable and easier to update.
I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I find those curly place holders ugly. And I've found that the more of those you have, the more difficult it is to maintain. You have to start matching the index number with the location inside the Format statement. X|
Andy Brummer wrote:
I wouldn't really call passing an invalid index to a fixed size array a subtle bug.
I suppose it's not subtle in that an exception will be thrown. My point is that it's easy to screw up the number, and not notice it until that piece of logic is executed. If it's an error message, it could be a while. (Yet another reason for unit testing.)
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
Al Beback wrote:
I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I find those curly place holders ugly.
Coding in C# and thinking curly braces are ugly? :laugh:
Al Beback wrote:
You have to start matching the index number with the location inside the Format statement.
Once that becomes an issue, I think you've really just reached the point where you just have complex output requirements. At that point I have trouble putting the output all together in my mind, so it gets to be just as much of a pain to update. Sometimes I'm more in the mood that day to use format strings other times I'll just munge the strings together.
This blanket smells like ham
-
Here's a simple code snippet (in C#):
string hello = "Hello";
string cp = "CP";
DateTime today = DateTime.Today;// Desired result: "Hello CP! Today is Friday";
string option1 = string.Format("{0} {1}! Today is {3:dddd}", hello, cp, today);
string option2 = hello + " " + cp + "! Today is " + today.ToString("dddd");
Vote 1 if you prefer option1. Vote 5 if you prefer option2. I prefer option2 since it's 1. More readable 2. Less error-prone (note the subtle error in option1 which the compiler won't catch) 3. More efficient (no CPU cycles spent scanning the format string looking for matching curly braces). Cheers!
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
The first is more readable, less error-prone, etc. The second is only for they who don't know about
string.Format. But I (being me) format it as follows so I can more clearly see and count the values:string option1 = string.Format
(
"{0} {1}! Today is {2:dddd}"
,
hello
,
cp
,
today
) ; -
Al Beback wrote:
I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I find those curly place holders ugly.
Coding in C# and thinking curly braces are ugly? :laugh:
Al Beback wrote:
You have to start matching the index number with the location inside the Format statement.
Once that becomes an issue, I think you've really just reached the point where you just have complex output requirements. At that point I have trouble putting the output all together in my mind, so it gets to be just as much of a pain to update. Sometimes I'm more in the mood that day to use format strings other times I'll just munge the strings together.
This blanket smells like ham
Andy Brummer wrote:
Coding in C# and thinking curly braces are ugly
Got me there. :) For code blocks no. As placeholders yes.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
-
The first is more readable, less error-prone, etc. The second is only for they who don't know about
string.Format. But I (being me) format it as follows so I can more clearly see and count the values:string option1 = string.Format
(
"{0} {1}! Today is {2:dddd}"
,
hello
,
cp
,
today
) ;PIEBALDconsult wrote:
The first is more readable, less error-prone
My example demonstrates how it's not less error prone. It's easy to mess up the numbering, or to pass in more or less parameters than expected, or to pass them in the wrong order.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
-
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
The first is more readable, less error-prone
My example demonstrates how it's not less error prone. It's easy to mess up the numbering, or to pass in more or less parameters than expected, or to pass them in the wrong order.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
Big deal. If you're afraid of making mistakes go right ahead and use option 2.
-
Here's a simple code snippet (in C#):
string hello = "Hello";
string cp = "CP";
DateTime today = DateTime.Today;// Desired result: "Hello CP! Today is Friday";
string option1 = string.Format("{0} {1}! Today is {3:dddd}", hello, cp, today);
string option2 = hello + " " + cp + "! Today is " + today.ToString("dddd");
Vote 1 if you prefer option1. Vote 5 if you prefer option2. I prefer option2 since it's 1. More readable 2. Less error-prone (note the subtle error in option1 which the compiler won't catch) 3. More efficient (no CPU cycles spent scanning the format string looking for matching curly braces). Cheers!
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
I use #1 almost exclusively. Why? Because #1 gives me a good idea at first-glance of how the end-result will be structured. value-space-value-!-space-Today is-space-formatted value. And yeah, there's a bug, which will show up the first time this code actually runs if no one sees it sooner - so it's really only an issue if no-one will ever test the code. #2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like. For performance, i'll just go with a StringBuilder or some such thing.
Last modified: 6mins after originally posted -- See how easy index errors are to catch at runtime? ;P
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
-
Al Beback wrote:
I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I find those curly place holders ugly.
Coding in C# and thinking curly braces are ugly? :laugh:
Al Beback wrote:
You have to start matching the index number with the location inside the Format statement.
Once that becomes an issue, I think you've really just reached the point where you just have complex output requirements. At that point I have trouble putting the output all together in my mind, so it gets to be just as much of a pain to update. Sometimes I'm more in the mood that day to use format strings other times I'll just munge the strings together.
This blanket smells like ham
Andy Brummer wrote:
Coding in C# and thinking curly braces are ugly?
Well, in the other uses of braces one could employ the C preprocessor and define begin and end appropriately, but that won't work in a string. :-D I still find the .net way preferable to the C way.
-
I use #1 almost exclusively. Why? Because #1 gives me a good idea at first-glance of how the end-result will be structured. value-space-value-!-space-Today is-space-formatted value. And yeah, there's a bug, which will show up the first time this code actually runs if no one sees it sooner - so it's really only an issue if no-one will ever test the code. #2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like. For performance, i'll just go with a StringBuilder or some such thing.
Last modified: 6mins after originally posted -- See how easy index errors are to catch at runtime? ;P
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
Shog9 wrote:
Because #2 gives
I think you mean #1. #2 is, well... #2 :-D
-
Shog9 wrote:
Because #2 gives
I think you mean #1. #2 is, well... #2 :-D
Corrected. Obviously this is the problem with using literal index values... :rolleyes:
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
-
malharone wrote:
Localization: it's easier to put the Format string in your RESX file and depending upon the locale, one can re-order the "{xx}".
That's the only compelling reason I have for using string.Format.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
Have you seen the crap concatenated by the newbies when they "build" their SQL statements?? That stuff isn't easy to read and it's a bitch to debug, hence they post it here wondering why it doesn't work.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007 -
I use #1 almost exclusively. Why? Because #1 gives me a good idea at first-glance of how the end-result will be structured. value-space-value-!-space-Today is-space-formatted value. And yeah, there's a bug, which will show up the first time this code actually runs if no one sees it sooner - so it's really only an issue if no-one will ever test the code. #2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like. For performance, i'll just go with a StringBuilder or some such thing.
Last modified: 6mins after originally posted -- See how easy index errors are to catch at runtime? ;P
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
Shog9 wrote:
Why? Because #2 gives me a good idea ...
Don't you mean #1?
Shog9 wrote:
#2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like.
I have the same opinion of #1. I have to mentally keep substituting the placeholders for their corresponding values. The more of those there are, the more difficult to visualize. With #2 the values are already neatly layed out in their proper place.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
-
Big Daddy Farang wrote:
I think he's fishing for "5" votes.
In that case, he'd asked for "vote 5 for option 1. vote 5 for option 2" !. - MS
malharone wrote:
In that case, he'd asked for "vote 5 for option 1. vote 5 for option 2" !.
I'm actually a bit surprised. I was hoping more people would see things my way. :-)
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
-
Corrected. Obviously this is the problem with using literal index values... :rolleyes:
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
Yes, but next time you'll be more careful and a better writer because of it. :)
-
Shog9 wrote:
Why? Because #2 gives me a good idea ...
Don't you mean #1?
Shog9 wrote:
#2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like.
I have the same opinion of #1. I have to mentally keep substituting the placeholders for their corresponding values. The more of those there are, the more difficult to visualize. With #2 the values are already neatly layed out in their proper place.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
Al Beback wrote:
I have to mentally keep substituting the placeholders for their corresponding values.
You have to do that both ways. The difference is, #1 just gives you a tiny little "this is a placeholder" mark, while #2 uses the full variable or expression (which is unlikely to be any closer in appearance to the actual result than #1's curly-brace marks, but takes up a whole lot more room. Not to mention requiring parens to separate non-string ops from string ops). Of course, it's a matter of preference - but i'm pretty set in my ways here; i use similar techniques for C++ and even JS, writing my own formatters when there's nothing suitable built-in. You have to do that both ways. The difference is, #1 just gives you a tiny little "this is a placeholder" mark, while #2 uses the full variable or expression**†**. Of course, it's a matter of preference - but i'm pretty set in my ways here; i use similar techniques for C++ and even JS, writing my own formatters when there's nothing suitable built-in. BTW - which of the above paragraphs do you prefer? ;P **†**which is unlikely to be any closer in appearance to the actual result than #1's curly-brace marks, but takes up a whole lot more room. Not to mention requiring parens to separate non-string ops from string ops.
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
-
Shog9 wrote:
Why? Because #2 gives me a good idea ...
Don't you mean #1?
Shog9 wrote:
#2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like.
I have the same opinion of #1. I have to mentally keep substituting the placeholders for their corresponding values. The more of those there are, the more difficult to visualize. With #2 the values are already neatly layed out in their proper place.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
What happens when it becomes
hello + " " + value + " " + value2 + value + " " + item.Format("{0:D}") + hello;? Is that still easy to visualize and have you looked at the IL that this produces?Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
-
Yes, but next time you'll be more careful and a better writer because of it. :)
Past experience sez otherwise... ;P
every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?
-
Shog9 wrote:
Why? Because #2 gives me a good idea ...
Don't you mean #1?
Shog9 wrote:
#2 i find exceedingly tedious to mentally parse into an idea of what the result will look like.
I have the same opinion of #1. I have to mentally keep substituting the placeholders for their corresponding values. The more of those there are, the more difficult to visualize. With #2 the values are already neatly layed out in their proper place.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
Well, if/when you use a Console.WriteLine(), would you use the format string and parameters?
-
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
The first is more readable, less error-prone
My example demonstrates how it's not less error prone. It's easy to mess up the numbering, or to pass in more or less parameters than expected, or to pass them in the wrong order.
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain
I don't buy it. I just don't see how any variant of
Dim sqlUpdate As String = "UPDATE ls_orderitems SET OrderItemRetailPrice = '" & _
Trim(PartRetailPrice) & "', OrderItemSalePrice = '" & Trim(PartSalePrice) & _
"' WHERE OrderItemPartNum = '" & Trim(PartNum) & "', OrderItemSource = '" & _
Trim(PartSource) & "', OrderType = 'Ron Ayers MotorSports'"can possibly be considered "easier to debug".
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007 -
Here's a simple code snippet (in C#):
string hello = "Hello";
string cp = "CP";
DateTime today = DateTime.Today;// Desired result: "Hello CP! Today is Friday";
string option1 = string.Format("{0} {1}! Today is {3:dddd}", hello, cp, today);
string option2 = hello + " " + cp + "! Today is " + today.ToString("dddd");
Vote 1 if you prefer option1. Vote 5 if you prefer option2. I prefer option2 since it's 1. More readable 2. Less error-prone (note the subtle error in option1 which the compiler won't catch) 3. More efficient (no CPU cycles spent scanning the format string looking for matching curly braces). Cheers!
Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea. - Mark Twain