On Tue, August 15, 2006 11:53 am, Chris W. Parker wrote:
> Is it a better practice to set flags to determine the action of your
> code or is it perfectly acceptable to have your code determine what it
> should do based on the existence (or lack thereof) of data?
>
> For example:
>
> <?php
>
> if($value == 1)
> {
> $flag = true;
> }
>
> if($flag === true)
> {
> echo "I wish I could come to the PHP meetup in Chicago! :(";
> }
>
> ?>
>
> versus:
>
> <?php
>
> if($value == 1)
> {
> echo "I wish I could come to the PHP meetup in Chicago! :(";
> }
>
> ?>
>
> Of course this is an overly simplistic example but you get the idea.
>
> Are there pros and cons to both sides or should I just avoid the
> latter
> example all together?
If the test is as simple as $value == 1, then setting a flag and
testing the flag is silly, over-engineered, and error-prone, and it
leads to code cruft which leads to bugs as alternative branches are
less clear than if the test is done in-line.
If the logic to figure out $flag is complicated, with multiple inputs,
and the result is used in multiple places, then, by all means, figure
it out once, and give the flag A GOOD NAME VARIABLE so that you can
reference it again and again later, rather than wade through
complicated test code over and over.
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