Re: More than one values returned?

Nathan Nobbe wrote: > On Feb 19, 2008 11:52 PM, Greg Donald <gdonald@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> On Feb 19, 2008 9:27 PM, Nick Stinemates <nick@stinemates.org> wrote: >> >>> Support != good design habits. >>> >> So you presume to have better design habits than the many language >> designers who implemented parallel assignment in their respective >> language? Right. >> >> >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment_%28computer_science%29#Parallel_assignment >> >> >>> Please read my other post which explains >>> the reasoning. >>> >> Your "reasoning" is shit. >> > > > dAAmn dude :D i agree though, being able to return multiple values from > a function has nothing to do with good or bad design of a language. in fact > if a language doesnt have support for it, likely it would not be in > widespread > use as is php. > and also, nick, for the record, it has nothing to do with being strongly or > weakly typed. take a look at c++, java, and .net; all strongly typed and > all > have pass-by-reference; thats what its for ;) and i dont want to act like > the > first person who said it because, C.R. Vegelin, said it first in this > thread. > (sorry ive been way busy lately :)) > but to op, yes, you can of course return an aggregate structure, but there > are many times where it is appropriate to use pass-by-reference instead, > because, > read: > thats what the mechanism is designed for :) > > let me furnish you with the most common example i can think of. > suppose you have a method that is returning a boolean status, but you want > to get some data back out of it as well. then you have it return a boolean > value, and toss a pass-by-reference parameter in there, > eg. > > /** > * do some crazy crap to some dudes account > */ > function doCrazyCrapToAccount($accountId, &$someCrazyNewCrapOnTheAccount) { > $wasSuccess = false; > /// potentially alter $wasSuccess ... > /// drop something meaningful in $someCrazyNewCrapOnTheAccount ... > return $wasSuccess; > } > > // then > $accountId = 5; > $crazyNewCrapOnAccount = null; > if(doCrazyCrapToAccount($accountId, $crazyNewCrapOnAccount)) { > echo $crazyNewCrapOnAccount; > } > > and i was doing that in c++ back in o, 99' so yeah; nothing to do w/ > loose typing, totally relevant; and thats technically how you return > multiple > values from a function, because lets face it; an aggregate is well, one > thing, > that just so happens to contain things, but again; its just one thing ;) > > -nathan > > Not once did I knock By Reference value passing or pointers. I said, simply, returning an array of objects was usually an indication of poor design. -- ================== Nick Stinemates (nick@stinemates.org) http://nick.stinemates.org AIM: Nick Stinemates MSN: nickstinemates@hotmail.com Yahoo: nickstinemates@yahoo.com ==================