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Re: Overloading methods question

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On Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:49:28 -0400, Eric Sosman wrote:

> On 10/25/2018 4:58 PM, Eric Douglas wrote:
>> [...]
>> Use boolean where there are exactly 2 possibilities (print duplex? yes
>> or no).  [...]
> 
>      Use booleans where there exactly two possibilities *and* where
> their associations with `true' and `false' are flat-out obvious.
> 
> 	/** An old-fashioned binary-gendered person. */
> 	public class Person {
> 	    /** A poorly-designed constructor API. */ public Person(Name 
name,
> 	    boolean gender) {
> 	...
> 
>      Things would be a little bit better if `gender' were renamed to
> `isMale' or `isFemale', but even with the improvement it's not great:
> 
> 	Person flawedSage = new Person(new Name("Kao", "Li"), false);
> 
> ... is not especially transparent.
>
In those circumstances I tend to define constants in the consuming class. 
In the OP's case I'd probably change the boolean to an int named 
nameFormat and declare the constants:

public static final int LONG 1;
public static final int SHORT 2;

and my code in the class would also use the SHORT and LONG constants 
because: 

(a) this way I don't have to create an enum and the javadocs will
    document the values automatically 
(b) both the method call and the internal code are easy to read
(c) the constant values have no hidden uses so the actual values used
    don't matter as long as they're different
(d) if additional values are needed in future they're easy to add

I realise that this approach probably betrays my C background, but is  
anything else about it wrong enough that it should cause me to use enums 
instead? 


-- 
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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Thread

Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-24 17:04 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-24 18:56 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-25 10:13 +0200
    Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-25 15:53 -0400
      Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-25 13:58 -0700
        Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-25 17:49 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-25 22:29 +0000
            Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-25 20:08 -0400
              Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-26 00:37 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-25 21:42 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-26 12:46 +0200
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-26 07:50 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-26 19:33 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-26 13:13 -0700
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-26 20:58 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-27 22:36 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-27 19:38 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-28 10:39 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-28 07:54 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-26 06:26 -0700
      Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-26 12:52 +0200
        Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-26 22:10 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-27 07:43 -0400
            Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-29 14:40 -0400
              Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-29 16:39 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-29 05:07 -0700
            Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-29 14:41 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-25 07:49 -0400
    Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-25 16:07 -0400

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