Please do not attempt to simplify this code

Post by runevault » Tue, Aug 06, 2024, 11:37 PM UTC

tomtheelder wrote: post #128

ahci8e wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would this work if I need to update multiple variables? int value1 = 0; int value2 = 0; if (condition) { value1 = 8; value2 = 16; } else { value1 = 128; value2 = 256; } Would I have to repeat the if expression twice? int value1 = if (condition) { 8 } else { 128 }; int value2 = if (condition) { 16 } else { 256 };

Depends on the language a bit, but a common feature in these languages is the tuple. Using a tuple you would end up with something like: let (value1, value2) = if (condition) { (8, 16) } else { (16, 256) } Or else you’d just use some other sort of compound value like a struct or something. Tuple is just convenient for doing it on the fly.

Post by runevault » Tue, Aug 06, 2024, 11:38 PM UTC

tomtheelder wrote: post #127

runevault wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple example for anyone who might not appreciate why this can be so nice. In languages where if is a statement (aka returns no value), you'd write code like int value; if(condition) { value = 5; } else { value = 10; } Instead of just int value = if(condition) {5} else {10} Some languages leave ifs as statements but add trinary as a way to get the same effect which is an acceptable workaround, but at least for me…

It’s only an acceptable workaround in the case of two conditions, but you’re still out of luck if you have >2 branches and no match expression.

Post by tomtheelder » Tue, Aug 06, 2024, 11:39 PM UTC

refulgentis wrote: post #96

Smaug123 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to have misread "expression" as "exception"; this is completely unrelated. An expression-based language is one that lets you do `let blah = if foo then bar else baz`, for example.

i honestly struggle with this because its a "i know when i see it" thing, ex. here, const boo = foo ? bar : baz suffices which brings in ~every language I know. My poor attempt at a definition, covers it in practice in languages I'm familiar, but not in theory, I assume: a language where switch statements return a value

Post by dskrvk » Tue, Aug 06, 2024, 11:44 PM UTC

bhauer wrote: post #119

mumblemumble wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish code like this still felt normal to me, but over the past ~10 years it seems that many people have come to value brevity over explicitness. I strongly prefer the explicitness, at least for important code like this. More than once in my career I've encountered situations where I couldn't figure out if the current behavior of a piece of code was intentional or accidental because it involved logic that did things…

Agreed. Explicitness and comments are very useful in understanding the intended functionality and logic, whether or not the code actually implements that intent correctly (an in providing that intent, they can help identify bugs earlier than they would be identified otherwise).

Post by tomtheelder » Tue, Aug 06, 2024, 11:50 PM UTC

runevault wrote: post #133

tomtheelder wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s only an acceptable workaround in the case of two conditions, but you’re still out of luck if you have >2 branches and no match expression.

You can technically do some craziness with nested ternary operators but they look awful and if you write them you will regret it later.