Coding style in CPython implementation
Rhodri James
rhodri at kynesim.co.uk
Mon Oct 30 10:31:00 EDT 2017
On 28/10/17 19:42, Στέφανος Σωφρονίου wrote:
> Greetings everyone.
>
> I have noticed that in many if conditions the following syntax is used:
>
> a) if (variable == NULL) { ... }
> b) if (variable == -1) { ... }
> c) if (variable != NULL) { ... }
>
> What I wanted to ask is, is there a particular reason for not choosing
>
> a) if (!variable) { ... } in place of if (variable == NULL) { ... },
"if (variable == NULL)" emphasises that "variable" is a pointer
variable, aiding readability.
> b) if (-1 == variable) { ... } in place of if (variable == -1) { ... }, and
It's just not natural English. It's safer to write it with the constant
first, but modern compilers will warn you about assignments in
conditions these days, and it's not worth the reduction in readability
in my opinion.
(Also, if you aren't using the -Werror -Wall flags to the compiler, you
deserve everything that will be coming to you.)
> c) if (variable) { ... } in place of if (variable) { ... } ?
I assume you mean "if (variable != NULL)" here. Again, it emphasises
the type; variable will be a pointer.
--
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd
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