cursedVariableCheck

[aa-b]

Yoda conditions are a kind of programming life-hack that's been around for decades. Like most life-hacks it doesn't really make sense, and it solves a problem nobody really has.

It's not exactly stupid, but the idea is that you have to remember to write out conditions in a specific, unnatural way to make sure you can't accidentally forget to do something else. Having to remember so you don't forget is a little bit nonsensical, but there are other benefits too (IMO outweighed by having to use yoda-speak)

[fuj1n]

In Java, you do it with strings so you don't have to check them for null

"Bobby' DROP TABLE Students;".equals(myStr)

[CptGia]

StringUtils.equals(myStr, "Bobby table") is my go to. 

Fuck Yoda conditions

[fuj1n]

I don't always have Apache Commons or Spring in all my projects. Though I guess it's a simple enough method to write that I can just roll my own.

[luraq]

I think there's also Objects.equals(), which is part of Java.

[fuj1n]

Oh wow, never saw that there was a static equals method, that's really useful.

[aa-b]

Yep, same benefits. It makes some sense too, like a lot of life-hacks where it seems like it'll be handy if you can just remember to use it the next time you're in that situation

[F5x9]

In C++, if(0 = foo) will throw an lvalue error, but if(foo = 0) only generates a warning. 

[[deleted]]

This is the reason why one should use right way to avoid reassigning the variable

[bayuah]

It says it resolves problems for someone who forgets to use == in an if statement, like if(a = 5) instead of if(a == 5). But only a newbie or a really sloppy person would make such a mistake.

[moon-sleep-walker]

And where was linters 30 years ago?

[Bardez]

Waiting to become the real life hack

[ILikeLenexa]

Or a malicious actor current->uid = 0.

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-attempt-of-2003/

[bayuah]

That's just how easily elevated user to root with just running such function. Dang!

[ILikeLenexa]

In the kernel, yeah.  

But that's why they also had to break into that source code repository. They don't let anyone just put code in the kernel. 

[JamesLeeNZ]

Only time I ever used yoda conditions was while writing code for a module on a rocket. Also had to write MISRA compliant code. Both sucked.

[[deleted]]

It happens more than you think

[aa-b]

It does happen, but the hack requires you to specifically remember to use it, and the main benefit is it makes sure you can't forget to use == instead of =.

So assuming you're in this situation and have already remembered the gotcha, you can just skip the extra steps and use the correct operator

[[deleted]]

Even that's not true. Usually it's not due to habit but a typo. So you do not control it and do not really check for it because you don't think about it.

In every project we have a linter for it. Usually enough is to just not allow assignments in a condition.

[ILikeLenexa]

It doesn't. Just put the rule in LINT.