Programming peeve of the Day

[Greg Utas]

It's quite clear, right in the return statement. If the only return is at the end of the function, you have to find all the places that can set the returned value, and figure out whether that value survives to the end of the function or gets updated.

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[Greg Utas]

Sure, but that's just convoluted code. Prolonging the confusion by also having to reach the end of the function is only going to make things worse.

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[Greg Utas]

Good point about automatic objects. Fortunately, C++ now has unique_ptr, but some languages might not have an equivalent.

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

[Chris Maunder]

Rick York wrote:

I let each sanity check have its own return statement

Full disclosure: I do the same if it makes it cumbersome / ugly otherwise. But one test/return section at the top.

cheers Chris Maunder

[Lorenzo Bertolino]

Sure, in a function that is 1000 lines long, it isn't clear. In one that fits on the screen is quite obvious. But I'd argue that a function that long isn't clear either way. :-D

[rob tillaart]

It all depends on which measuring stick is used... - # exits in a function - # lines of code - # lines of comments - # paths in the code - readability, - maintainability, modifiability - only use positive condition tests (! using ! and certainly ! !!) And of course if you (think you) are paid by lines of code produced there are many other "solutions"

[User 14060113]

Visual Studio would show you that the else branch in unnecessary.

[Fueled By Decaff]

Hmm, to trying to please people who want a single exit point and clear intent when processing is completed:

if (condition)
{
goto returnStatement;
}
// Do something else

:returnStatement

return;

X| :laugh: X|

[Wizard of Sleeves]

My career best:

function doNothing(something) {
return something;
}

Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.

[JohaViss61]

Just to annoy everyone :laugh:

switch (condition)
{
case true: return;

default: // do something else
}

[BryanFazekas]

What is the value of the redundant return statement inside the braces? One of my first jobs was processing in a 16K space, and the data was 12K per record. We coded very concisely as we had no room for extraneous code. Today's compilers are far more efficient, but making the processing straightforward and eliminating redundant code is still a good idea.

[Mike Hankey]

I'm retired but I work a lot with embedded systems that have small memory spaces so every byte counts. The redundant return statements where a joke...to see how screwed up we could make it!

The less you need, the more you have. JaxCoder.com

[BryanFazekas]

Mike, you're not even close to how screwed up someone could make this! :laugh: I worked with a guy who was intent on cover EVERY possibility. His program executed 700 lines of code when tabbing between fields. If anyone actually clicked something, it go ugly ....

[Mike Hankey]

I've no doubt that it could be more screwed up and I've seen it when I was getting payed to program. I wonder how some people get into the field and even more how they stay.

The less you need, the more you have. JaxCoder.com

[BernardIE5317]

if(the_code_below_can_not_be_executed) return;
// now do what must be done

[BryanFazekas]

Yeah, the lack of ability in some cases is amazing, and not in a good way. My boss tells a story of a former employee who made cut-n-paste an art form. Modern art form. This person appears to have never written a line of code -- everything was copied from other programs and web sites, and this person could not understand why the program would not work. In another situation I taught a COBOL programmer with 5 years experience how to program. I am not a COBOL programmer and have never compiled a single line. This is not picking on COBOL -- this guy did not understand program flow. OTOH, he was fantastic at phone support, which is where he should have been.

[Chris Maunder]

That's so, so wrong on so many levels...

cheers Chris Maunder

[obermd]

Looks like a copy/paste error where the code wasn't cleaned up after the paste.

[agolddog]

Of course! It should be:

if (!condition) {
//Do something else
}

[Mark Starr]

Agreed! That’s what GOTO is for. :laugh:

Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events. - Manly P. Hall Mark Just another cog in the wheel