undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjbverschoor5y ago0 comments

Sadly, a lot of junior and medior programmers see that as a wrong pattern, and opt for a return variable.. Drives me nuts.

0 comments

8 comments · 4 top-level

speedyapoc5y ago· 2 in thread

I recall this pattern being taught in my first year or two of my computer science degree. Emphasizing only one return statement per function, utilizing a shared return variable.

I much preferred (and still greatly prefer in industry) the pattern of exiting the function as soon as possible.

cryptonector5y ago

It's like "goto considered harmless" -- structured code to max, to the point of unreadability. Dogmatism has drawbacks.

jbverschoorOP5y ago

Same here.

Returning and throwing quickly and strict.

joshAg5y ago· 2 in thread

In C when you have nothing that needs cleanup, it's not the most horrible thing ever:

  int foo(thing_t \*work) {
    int ret = E_SUCCESS;

    if(work->thing == BAD_THING) {
      ret = E_BAD;
      goto exit;
    }
  
    do_some(work);
  
    if(work->thing2 == OTHER_BAD_THING) {
      LOG("whoopsies");
      ret = E_OTHER;
      goto exit;
    }
  
    ret = do_more(work);
    if (!ret) {
      LOG("lazy");
      goto exit;
    }
  
    ret = last_bit_of(work);
  
  exit:
    return ret;
  }

kbenson5y ago

I find the safe way to program that is always to set the initial value to some error. You only set it to success at the point you succeed. Then you never have to worry about some odd goto or other break in the control glow being introduced by you or someone else that wasn't paying attention. It's also better self documentation, because then it's obvious at what point you're actually done, in the case your final work isn't aptly named "last_bit_of_work(work)", because you'll see the return variable set to E_SUCCESS immediately afterwards.

joshAg5y ago

agreed, but some people dislike that because you have to have an E_UKNOWN or E_GENERAL or something like that in addition to more specific errors and others dislike it because now there's not something to conveniently store results from called functions in so that they can be checked for errors.

earthboundkid5y ago

I see that as a sign that the person learned how to program in the 80s/90s when things were still in a phase of overreaction to the popularity of BASIC and GOTO. GOTO is bad, therefore return is good, and single return is best. Not actually good logic, but that was the thinking at the time.

vsareto5y ago

They should really use both

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse