Property Name Sementics - IsEmpty or Empty
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Can't make up my mind. Coding a class that represents a Polygon. If the polygon has no points should the property name be Empty or IsEmpty?
The short answer is that both are acceptable and both are used within the Framework, so use whichever you think is better. I typically drop the 'Is'. I also agree with other posters who've said that you should really be defining a Valid (or IsValid ;P ) property which checks that there are at least 3 points (maybe 3 non-colinear points?). The points array being empty isn't really a relevant concern, I don't think.
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Can't make up my mind. Coding a class that represents a Polygon. If the polygon has no points should the property name be Empty or IsEmpty?
"Empty"; as "IsEmpty" would be question and would indeed imply either a delegate or a method. "Empty" is a property of the Polygon. "IsEmpty" would be a method that can be called from that property to fetch a value, but a property never begins with "Is". The color of an apple is "Apple.Color", not "Apple.IsColor". Yes, you might be persuaded to prefix the "Is" because the property returns a bool. It shouldn't matter whether it returns a bool or an enum - if it's a property, then it'll have the name of a property - not the form a question.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss:
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I guess it would be considered too confusing to have some Parse() methods that throw exceptions on failure, and others that just return false; I do recall a Microsoft recommendation NOT to have a parameter that controls whether failures would throw exceptions, for the same reason. :)
Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Luc Pattyn wrote:
it would be considered too confusing
I disagree; the boolean return and the documentation make it clear.
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
it would be considered too confusing
I disagree; the boolean return and the documentation make it clear.
bool.Parse()would always return a bool... :doh:Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
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Can't make up my mind. Coding a class that represents a Polygon. If the polygon has no points should the property name be Empty or IsEmpty?
Thinking about the way structs such as
Size,PointandRectangledeal with this, I haven't checked, but I don't believe they don't provide a property for this. There is a static read only instance available calledEmptythat you can use for equality comparison to see if the one you have is empty. OverridingEquals(object),GetHashCode()and providing operator overloads for==and!=(and possibly implementingIEquatable<T>) would be the way to do this. I don't think I would use a property for this, I would use a methodpublic bool IsEmpty()as you are asking for information about the object as a whole rather than a part of it which is IMO opinion the purpose of a property.Dave
Binging is like googling, it just feels dirtier. Please take your VB.NET out of our nice case sensitive forum. Astonish us. Be exceptional. (Pete O'Hanlon)
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn) -
bool.Parse()would always return a bool... :doh:Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
True, but then there's the out parameter.