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Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 08/24/07 01:17
burgermeister01@gmail.com wrote:
> First, let me say that this question is a rather general programming
> question, but the context is PHP, so I figured this group would have
> the most relevant insight.
>
> Anyways, this is also more of an opinion based question than one
> seeking a definite answer. Recently, while maintaining a rather large
> system. I needed to add an array class member to an object. It was
> exactly the same as another class member, except that one array stored
> regular products, and the other stored free promotional products. As
> such, I needed a way to add products to the new, free array. Since all
> the logic was the same between the two arrays aside from the price, I
> had a few different options to do this. I'm interested in polling
> which way some of the group members feel would have been the best.
> Naturally these are abbreviated versions of what I envisioned as
> possible solutions.
> #1.
> public function addArrayA($object){
> //logic
> $a[] = $object;
> }
>
> public function addArrayB($object){
> //same logic
> $b[] = $object;
> }
>
>
> #2. (These next two are arranged as such, because the class using
> these functions is included in many script files,
> all of which I may not be aware of, so there would have to be some
> default value for the array that was always used
> before this new array was needed)
> public function addArray($object, $free = NULL){
> //logic
> if(!$free){
> $a[] = $object;
> }else{
> $b[] = $object;
> }
> }
>
> or
>
> #3
> public function addArray($object, $arr = "a"){
> //logic
> $$arr[] = $object;
> }
>
>
>
> I ended up going with option number 1, because I felt that despite the
> inefficient, redundant code it would later be more readable to other
> programmers that might work on the project. Additionally, I didn't
> feel wholly comfortable with default variables being the only
> difference between a full price product and a free product. Thoughts?
>
I'd pick choice 1.
Generally I try not to change an existing function's signature unless
necessary. Also, it's more clear as to what it's doing, and there is
only one line of duplicated code (if there were a lot of lines, I'd have
a common function and pass $a or $b to that function).
You could make a case could be made for choice 2, but it adds
complication (and processing time for the if statements).
No way would I ever pick choice 3. It's unnecessarily complicated and
confusing. And what would happen if someone passed 'c' to it?
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
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