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Re: Exit from loop?

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On Wed, 04 Apr 2018 19:51:04 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> The first example has two returns from the method.
> 
> The second example has two exits from the loop.
> 
> My suggestion has two conditions for exit from loop.
> 
> I think that first->second->my goes to better code.
> 
> And if one has strong religious beliefs about code then one should
> really focus on getting this right.
> 
> But if one is pragmatic/practical oriented, then I would say that all 3
> are very readable and there is no reason to spend time on such a
> non-issue.
> 
Sometimes this sort of loop coding problem becomes more readable/
understandable by converting the logic into an if..then..else 'totem 
pole' with a single 'stop now' flag that gets set by one or more of the 
conditions and is only tested in the 'for' or 'while' clause that drives 
the loop.

I did exactly that yesterday, but in C rather than Java. I'd originally 
written a set of unconnected conditions into the loop, some of which 
either skipped the rest with 'continue' or exited with 'break' as well as 
the 'for' statement stopping at the end of the string being processed. 
When it all started to look a bit untidy, I rewrote it, combining the 
conditions into a totem-pole and leaving just the end-of-string stop 
condition. Big improvement in readability, and it ran correctly at first 
try.   

I also admit to preferring to have a single exit point from loops and a 
single return from functions/methods.


-- 
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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Thread

Exit from loop? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-04-04 12:05 -0700
  Re: Exit from loop? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-04-04 15:25 -0400
    Re: Exit from loop? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-04-04 12:44 -0700
      Re: Exit from loop? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-04-04 19:51 -0400
        Re: Exit from loop? Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-04-05 10:46 +0000
      Re: Exit from loop? Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte.net> - 2018-04-06 18:19 +0200

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