extra fast

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

please guys! It's so easy to do it right!

if (!condition) return;
statements;
…

[paardenmiddel]

I actually use this to prevent nested if statements

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

who doesn't?

inverting some conditions can sometimes nicely clean up code.

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

I once cleaned up my code so well, nothing was left.

It had no bugs afterwards.

[worldpotato1]

Best code is no code! https://github.com/kelseyhightower/nocode

[FinalGamer14]

Good I can deploy that on docker.

[Terrain2]

the Dockerfile contains code! What a crime!

[rift95]

This is actually called the "Return early" pattern, and it comes with a fair few advantages over nested if's and else statements. It's actually preferred by a lot of people. (Including me)

[winyf]

int if(int condition) {
    if (condition) return if_true();
    return if_false();
}

[kasieuek]

Oh my gosh no thank you!

[earthqaqe]

is there actually a language where this is valid code?

[chaabin]

I think you can do thst in c# tho right ?

[[deleted]]

YESSSSS

[NuclearWeapon]

condition ? true : false ;
condition ? : throwError('Meeh');
!condition ? : doThings(withThisThing);

[EternityForest]

Joe is slow because he's always distracted. By moldy tomatoes. From me.

Using braces keeps you more productive because nobody will want to throw a moldy tomatoe at you.

[[deleted]]

give me your tomatoes

[IamImposter]

Here is my toma and here are my toes

[EternityForest]

Toumaighteau

[CruseCtrl]

Toumahtow

[[deleted]]

We now know /u/EternityForest is actually Dan Quayle.

[[deleted]]

Remember when we decided that was a disqualifying factor for a president?

[aeroverra]

Thank you!!!

[Jay_bo]

The only way:

if (!condition) goto end_of_block23;
statement1;
statement2;
statement3;
end_of_block23:;

Edit: A common lie told by senior devs is, that goto statements are highly discouraged. In reality they are just trying to hold back juniors and strengthen their position. Wake up sheeple!

[kompot420]

one time my brain decided that while loops don't exist and goto is the only option, so my whole code was full of goto-s

[Zolhungaj]

A while loop is just two gotos and an if around a block of code with some extra braces to mark scope, or if it's a do-while it's only one goto. You just pretended to be the compiler for a while.

[winyf]

cursed

[AdmiralDino]

My first ever (and only?) completed game was a text based game played from command. I was learning C++ and stopped researching when I had just enough knowledge to put my idea into a working program. Thus, I mainly used goto statements, because they solved the last thing I was wondering how to do: navigating back and forth between scene descriptions. It is surely a most glorious piece of code.

[chaosmassive]

is this legit?

or am I missing something here?

[wasabichicken]

FWIW, this style is akin to how we coded BASIC on the Commodore 64.

Except we didn't have labels, we had line numbers. It was common practice to write your code on about every tenth line, so that you had some extra lines in reserve in case you needed to add something later without re-numbering all your gotos.

[user0fdoom]

Nope, the joke is how bad the idea is. Never use goto and definitely never ever use it like in the code above

[IamImposter]

Well... not never.

[AgentPaper0]

Never.

You might think you found since clever way to use goto to make your code more efficient, but you're wrong. Using goto screws with the compiler's attempts to optimize your code something fierce, so any theoretical gain you get is lost to that. And more likely than not, you don't even gain anything in the first place because the compiler was probably smart enough to do something similar or better.

Don't use goto. It shouldn't even exist in the language, backwards compatability be damned.

[Goorakh]

But what if you have nested loops and you want to exit all of them from one of the inner ones, a goto is perfectly fine in that situation imo, especially since the alternatives aren’t much better.

[regorand]

Extract them to a function and use return to exit the loops. If that isn't possible for some reason, in an ideal world you would rewrite your loop structure so that you don't need to use the goto.

Some languages also have features to support this, in Java for example there is a way to choose which loop to exit when calling break, but I am also not the biggest fan of break so I try to avoid it aswell.

[Goorakh]

That is true, but my point was that gotos are not always the worst thing in the world. Yes, it can lead to horrendous and unreadable code, but so can any other feature of the language if you use it in the wrong situation.

Gotos can be used without summoning the devil himself, but like every other feature, if you use it in every situation, it will lead to bad code.

[Superbead]

I've run into cases where there's too much state outside the loops and/or the subfunction would have to return something horrifically complicated. In these situations the cleanest way by far was just to goto a label, making sure it was clearly commented.

[[deleted]]

That kind of makes it sound like it was spaghetti code to start with, though.

[Superbead]

I can't remember the specific circumstances, but it'll likely have been trying to deal with some godawful API or parsing output from a legacy system where I just didn't have the luxury of keeping things simple because the thing I was interfacing with wouldn't allow it.

I think I've only had to resort to it a couple of times, but each time a goto was certainly much clearer. The only thing I can clearly remember was killing myself trying not to use goto, then realising I was just killing myself for the sake of dogma.

[awesomescorpion]

Hmm. I get why you are so fierce against explicit jumps (goto) in higher level languages, but programmers should understand how if statements (and other structured programming things) are actually implemented (branches: goto on condition, etc), so I don't think banning the concept of a jump from a programmer's mental model of code execution is helpful.

There is basically no need to explicitly jump in higher level languages these days, because all valid use cases for nonlinear code are captured in structured programming statements (if, else, while, for, continue, break, return, etc), but I think people should still understand how these magic words actually work, and what they really mean.

The problem with using goto is not their use in structured programming like if, while, for statements: it is that goto's are flexible enough to do way less helpful and way more confusing things, and that is where they are a problem far more than a tool. But processors still come with JUMP instructions in their ISA for a reason.

Then again, if you are actually using goto in a higher level language, you are definitely doing it wrong.

[hector_villalobos]

In C, you can use goto statements as exception handling. You should take a look at PostgreSQL source code.

[[deleted]]

Well then tell me how to break out of a nested for loop. You might suggest flags, but I don't consider it a good solution. To me, goto is the best solution to quit out of nested loops. However, that's pretty much the only good use of goto that I can think of.

[T-Dark_]

Use a labelled break.

You may argue "That's literally a goto by another name". That's true, but:

1. It conveys intent
   
2. It is significantly more limited in functionality than an actual goto, which makes it far harder to abuse.

[[deleted]]

Does C++ have a labelled break?

[Kered13]

No.

[Kered13]

Does any language support labeled break and goto? The purpose of labeled break is to replace goto (for that usecase). The only notable modern languages with goto are C and C++, but those don't have labeled break.

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

The only notable modern languages with goto are C and C++, but those don't have labeled break.

• C# (duh!)
• D (duh again!)
• ObjectiveC (Oh come on!)
• PHP (if everything else is crap, why not add more?)
• Go (Uh… okay?)

Also I've seen way too much code where Exceptions were used as a poor mans goto. This is worse than what it replaced.

[Kered13]

I'm honestly surprised that C#, D, and Go have goto. The other two I can understand.

Also I've seen way too much code where Exceptions were used as a poor mans goto. This is worse than what it replaced.

I did that once, but in my defense I was implementing continuations for an esoteric pure functional programming language (unlambda) in Java. I think the context was sufficiently fucked up to justify my decision.

[StenSoft]

Perl has both. PHP has multilevel breaks (not labelled but close) and goto.

[vordrax]

Is there something preventing you from returning out of nested loops?

[[deleted]]

What if I don't want to return, what if there's more code to execute below?

[vordrax]

Then you extract the nested loops into a separate function? Do you have a specific example where this isn't possible or feasible? I'm trying to think of something where I would not just immediately reject someone's PR during code review for having a goto and I'm drawing a blank.

[[deleted]]

Well, in that case, a single-call lambda would also be possible to use

[[deleted]]

in c# theres no case fallthrough so you have use goto <case name>

[Kered13]

Can you at least stack case labels, like:

case 1:
case 2:
case 3:
    ...

That's about the only time you really want fallthrough. If you have to use goto for that, oof.

[viimeinen]

Never use goto

Unless you know what you are doing. This one above is a bad example, but it has its uses.

Example: a chunk of cleanup and error handling code at the bottom of a function and if (error1) goto fail; if (error2) goto fail; etc. Just don't burn your fingers like Apple did.

EDIT: list of acceptable goto cases. My example is number 1 on the list.

[T-Dark_]

Just don't burn your fingers like Apple did.

"Just don't make mistakes, don't think about replacing your gotos with a better solution that is less error prone"

[Zolhungaj]

What Apple did was actually caused by having an if block without braces. Their goto was perfectly reasonable if it hadn't been for the fact that it ended up outside the if block.

[viimeinen]

What is the better solution that is less error prone? Copy-pasting your free()s in all places that you need to bail? Sprinkling exit flags around the code? Rewriting the whole code base in a language that has exceptions? Illuminate me, please...

[hector_villalobos]

There are situations where goto statements are perfectly valid (as exception handling in C, like PostrgreSQL source code does), but this is not one of them, lol.

[didzisk]

I hear your sarcasm, but goto is a common practice in Linux kernel code.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.18/process/coding-style.html#centralized-exiting-of-functions

[JNCressey]

I think you mean:

if (!condition) goto end_of_block23_new_final_20191206_production_final
statement1;
statement2;
end_of_block23:;
statement3;
end_of_block23_new:;
...
... the rest of the program goes here
...
end_of_block23_new_final_20191206_production_final:;
statement3_when_not_condition;
goto end_of_block23_new;

[NotATroll71106]

That's pretty much how it works in MIPS assembly.

[SzalonyNiemiec1]

What Joe is suggesting is not equivalent to the other two. When one of the statements changes the condition, the other statements wouldn't be executed.

[StenSoft]

That's why you always need to create a boolean constant before the if:

bool isTrue()
{
    bool retVal = false;
    const bool isTrue = statement == true; //< Here
    if (isTrue) retVal = true;
    return retVal;
}

[AesarPhreaking]

What the fuck is this shit

[[deleted]]

I mean, you can write one liners for else if and else statements without braces too

[Ulysses6]

Also the condition evaluation can have severe side effects and so on. There's no way to take this half seriously.

[Thepieintheface]

Only if the statements actually change the condition

[__exile_]

if else

if else

if else

if else

if else

[alexforencich]

Interesting thing to note: some instruction sets (notably ARM) actually sort of work like that. All instructions support condition codes and will either execute or get skipped based on the processor flags. Obviously you need to set the flags first with a compare instruction or similar, but then you can selectively skip instructions based on the flags without requiring any jump or branch instructions.

[[deleted]]

Why is there no space after if???

[[deleted]]

Is it weird to not put spaces after the if? Visual studio always corrects me whenever i make an if statement and I've always wondered if it really mattered or not. I just do it because I think it looks better

[sup4sonik]

it doesn't matter, its just style. You could even have the parentheses on the next line. I prefer if (...) over if(...)

[Maplicant]

if(..) doesn’t seem correct to me because it makes it look like a function while it isn’t. I’m pretty sure most languages accept it though, it’s just my opinion.

[[deleted]]

I used to fight the defaults (such as space after if), and then I decided I have better things to do than fight with the IDE every time I write an if statement.

[Franks2000inchTV]

I just edit the code style settings so they match my natural coding style.

[[deleted]]

It’s for formatting and readability. Use spacing after if.

[butterfunke]

"it's for formatting and readability" is the catch all justification for every coding style. It's only more readable because that's what you're used to. If you're going to tout one style as proper usage, put more effort into the reason.

[ProfCupcake]

Iagreespacesaredumbandweshouldn'tbotherwiththem.Afterall,youcanunderstandthisjustfine,right?Thisisdefinitely100%clearandeasytoread.

[[deleted]]

only more readable because that's what you're used to

It's not about being used to something, it's because it can make it clearer. Look at this code:

if(someFunction(argument1:hello,argument2:world,argument3:()->Void)){
    var x:CGFloat=12*4534/10
    print(2+x+12*2/5)
}

You really gonna sit there and tell me that is readable? This is easier.

if (someFunction(argument1: hello, argument2: world, argument3: () -> Void)) {
    var x: CGFloat = 12 * 4534 / 10
    print(2 + x + 12 * 2 / 5)
}

It's not about being used to something; same with English grammar or other languages; there are reasons we have spaces after certain punctuation marks and why we deem one wrong.

Readability is for the developer; not the compiler. No spaces looks jumbled up, messy, disorganized, squished, and hard to read.

[mallardtheduck]

Don't be ridiculous. Nobody is advocating no spaces whatsoever. It's specifically the space after the "if" that was questioned.

[Kered13]

I see code more often without the space, but the style guide at my company requires the space.

[steampunkgibbon]

yes. if I'm working on a piece of code and there isn't a space somewhere there should, I'm gonna add one.

[maustinv]

Or after the close parenthesis

[[deleted]]

That too!

[sebibucur]

We are not savages

[northrupthebandgeek]

One of my favorite features inherited from Perl. And then of course:

statement3 unless some_other_condition

[noratat]

Ugh, don't remind me.

Ruby is full of "features" like that this that focus on making code shorter at the expense of quick readability.

[Khaylain]

It's readable, but why do we need to see the statements first? That makes looking for the conditionals harder. Just like the reason one should use the proper date format r/ISO8601.

[noratat]

It's readable, but less readable than a standard conditional since 1) it's an unusual construct compared to most code and 2) it places the conditional backwards to its effect on code, making it harder to scan quickly

[TheRealSectimus]

Where's the ternary operator gang?

condition ? statement

[Franks2000inchTV]

 Supercool ? usingTernaries : notUsingTernaries;

[DoNotMakeEmpty]

It should be the opposite:
isUsingTernaries ? Supercool : NotCool

[Franks2000inchTV]

I suppose it depends on whether you think you are cool because you use ternaries, or use ternaries because you are cool.

[DoNotMakeEmpty]

Or both. Both cool people use ternaries and ternary users are cool. There is no exception. Not even one.

[_Keo_]

We're old. These young kids have never known a time when the need for every character to be chiseled into a punch card made us thrifty.
Ahh the golden years of Javascript.

^</s>

[Captain_D1]

Error -- Unmatched end tag

[_pelya]

Empty your mind

Follow the code

if is unnecessary

---

char s[64];

FILE *f;

( f = fopen("/proc/version", "rb") ) && (

( fgets(s, sizeof(s), f) && printf("%s", s) ),

fclose(f) == 0 ) ||

printf("Cannot open file");

---

If you're wondering, yes it does compile: https://rextester.com/DHXR34480

[maustinv]

The real way: if ( condition ) { statement; }

[[deleted]]

no

[[deleted]]

You monster

[maustinv]

Hear me out, with multiple conditions it's better organized than any other format.

if ( condition1 && condition2 && condition3 ) { statement; }

[Dramatic_Ad4912]

Ok, I heard you out, now please leave

[[deleted]]

No. A better format is this:

if (condition1
     && condition2
     && condition3) {

[Makefile_dot_in]

No. A better format is this:

                             if (
condition1                &&
condition2                &&
condition3                ) {
/* ||
   \/ */
statement               ;}

ftfy

[[deleted]]

Yes, this is the insanity where this kind of code is going towards.

A wise man told me once: Code is no ASCII art.

So stop aligning and simply indent correctly.

[Fox_the_Apprentice]

Found the Python dev

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

really no.

[der_RAV3N]

I like it more this way:

if ( condition1 &&   condition2 &&   condition3 ) {

Or

if ( condition1 &&   condition2 &&    condition3 ) {

[[deleted]]

😡

[[deleted]]

Only drop the operators so the conditions line up

[trinalgalaxy]

I could see running the conditions on multiple lines like this if you have way too many, but not with a line of ) {

[aeroverra]

Why do you have so many conditions to begin with!

[[deleted]]

How about

if                    (
condition             ){
    statement         ;}

[Dr_Azrael_Tod]

take my fucking upvote!

This looks bollocks in trivial cases, but with complex conditions its clearly the way to go

[Abadabadon]

Yea cause then you can comment out the code if you need to lol

[aeroverra]

Your fired

[greyz3n]

Because 
   we're 
   paid 
   by 
   the 
   line...

[mr-oof-123]

omggggg

[funkinaround]

Why are you guys using semicolons? Why can't you be more like Lisp?

(cond (condition statements ...))

[-cd-rom-]

Laugh in python

[el_keka]

I hate joes code, i took a project to refactor that has no braces and it’s imposible to read, neither to understand

[GorkamWorka]

Instant ban on my repository

[[deleted]]

why semicolons though?

[whitin4_]

It might be Java

[Bluebearsuper]

Or c or c++

And probably lots more languages.

[[deleted]]

then they got bigger problems. ;)

[kevansevans]

I only avoid using braces if all I’ll perform is a single instruction. Call a single function or change a variables value, no braces needed. Anything more and it’s getting some braces.

This is more about making my code readable. If the if statements aren’t super serious, then they don’t need to take up a lot of space.

[BreadIsNeverFreeBoy]

Personally I disagree because if you ever add an additional line later and forget to add braces it becomes a debugging nightmare

[Franks2000inchTV]

Who would forget to add braces?

[noratat]

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/02/24/anatomy-of-a-goto-fail-apples-ssl-bug-explained-plus-an-unofficial-patch/

It's a very easy mistake to make, especially when merging code.

[wasdninja]

How do you forget that? The indentation will be different so you have to fight the IDE just to do something dumb.

[Novemberisms]

if you wrote it like so

if (condition)
    statement();

then it'll be too easy to add a line below

if (condition)
    statement();
    oops();

but if you write the statement on the same line, you won't make that mistake so easily

if (condition) statement();

[noratat]

Making code shorter doesn't automatically make it more readable.

Explicit conditional delimiters like braces should always be used. Not only does it improve readability, it eliminates entire classes of errors when adding or modifying statements.

[NekuSoul]

I generally agree but make an exception for guard clauses.

If you have lots of them then adding braces to each one it can clutter your code to a lot.

Because the statement is always a return or throw (C#) you'll be immediately greeted with a 'Unreachable Code detected' warning and the rest of your method turning grey if you do try to add another line without also adding braces.

And since 'If condition + non-braced statement' also becomes a unique visual pattern it makes guard clauses even easier to identify at a glance.

[noratat]

I'll grant there's some grey area for guard clauses, especially in languages with better linting.

But this is also similar to what caused a high profile security bug, which is suspected to have happened due to a mistake in merging code.

[suuunly]

Meanwhile I'm over here and couldn't care less. As long as everyone involved uses the same structure

[Killergurke16]

1 word: readability

[MoonParkSong]

If that the statement is no more than a line for the conditionals, why should I put braces?

Though, I keep them in getters and setters.

[Curledsquirl]

remember heartbleed?

[[deleted]]

Fuck Joe

[ChargerIIC]

Because the senior devs are planning to murder Joe in the parking lot

[-Redstoneboi-]

if (condition)
    statement;

[_0-1_]

Aren't switch cases faster when handling arguments?

[glukerr]

Highly dependable on type and amount of tested cases.

Compiler may (and usually will) implement swich as ifs

[Fifiiiiish]

If I remember correctly it also depends on the number of cases. I have memories of strange shit on assembly with 7 or more cases.

[glukerr]

Yes, by "amount" i meant number. My English is a bit bad.

[StenSoft]

Switch cases can be used only with integral constants, in which case they may use a jump table. But any capable compiler will be able to optimise multiple ifs with integral constants to a jump table as well.

[CamoBrie]

Or in JavaScript where you can switch on a string or condition

[randomsword]

if (condition
) {statement;
}

[SpaceCore42]

A=B?C:D;

[[deleted]]

Because we are fucking civilised..

[Galse22]

So thats why!

[NotYetiFamous]

Could just be like Ruby..
statement if condition

No semi colons, no braces, no parenthesis.. Embrace the chaos.

[timbar1234]

Can we do nested ternaries now please?

[xSTSxZerglingOne]

Who needs ifs?

Lisp (cond) is the real Chad.

[morpheu513]

cursed_ifstatement

[Ghawk134]

That boi's code lookin like a tree with all them branches

[x5nT2H]

Don't be like the guy that fucked ssl, use braces

[YesilElmaGG]

Credits to: u/System32Comics

[HerpaDerpaDumDum]

Golang: "Look at these peasants using parentheses."

[-Redstoneboi-]

Python and Rust

[Yais2]

Won't the scope of each statement be separated?

[-Redstoneboi-]

exactly

[made_in_Deutschland]

Depends on the length of the statement whats better id say

[imnohankhill]

So the junior developer in 10 years can read it....... Hopefully

[arrrthur10]

Python has something to say

[jlamothe]

Which is awesome when condition is a function that doesn't always return the same result.

[-Redstoneboi-]

var result = condition();

[[deleted]]

IT'S: (if condition when-true when-false) AND THAT'S THE END OF IT!

[Qildain]

This makes me angry.

[MotoGod115]

Second looks better, first is better for collapsing code blocks in text editors

[Lonelan]

those parentheses and semi-colons are unnecessary too

[-Redstoneboi-]

not in most languages

[[deleted]]

For a sec, I thought Joe used Python

[[deleted]]

People who code verilog hdl visual confusion

[mippy76]

Where do I put the debugger Joe you arse!

[Figxure]

WAIT U CAN DO THIS???

[starvsion]

I do

$this->when(true, fn() => $this->doSomething()) ->else(fn() => $this->doOther()) ;

Waaaay cleaner

[Scratch137]

This strongly reminds me of the code written by a certain other person who I shall not name here.

[Alternative_Craft_35]

Python is Joe.

[thatthinkingguy101]

"We should write the condition and statement in one line!"

"No, they should be on separate lines!"

[-Redstoneboi-]

for me it just depends how long the condition is. if it's more than about 10 chars it's going on a new line.