Re: switch case - to require the break statements seems strange to me

On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 14:33 -0400, Eric Gorr wrote: > On Sep 12, 2008, at 2:14 PM, Robert Cummings wrote: > > > On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 11:47 -0400, Eric Gorr wrote: > >> On Sep 12, 2008, at 11:39 AM, Andrew Ballard wrote: > >> > >>> On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 9:52 AM, Jochem Maas <jochem@iamjochem.com> > >>> wrote: > >>>> Luke schreef: > >>>>> > >>>>> I wonder if this is a shared trait between C and PHP (since I > >>>>> understand > >>>>> PHP > >>>>> is written in C) that the break; and the default: are placed for > >>>>> good > >>>>> practice in all switch statements since they prevent memory leaks? > >>>> > >>>> default is not required, never heard it was good practice to always > >>>> put it > >>>> in. > >>> > >>> I can't say I've ever heard it recommended as good practice from the > >>> standpoint of performance in any specific language I've ever worked > >>> with, but I have heard people suggest that you always include an > >>> explicit default case in any kind of branching logic. It does seem > >>> useless to say > >>> > >>> default: // do nothing > >>> break; > >>> > >>> in a switch block, but I imagine the reasoning behind it is so that > >>> anyone who reads your code can see that you actually thought about > >>> what should/would happen if none of the other conditions were true > >>> rather than ignoring those conditions. > >> > >> It is always useful for a 'default:' case, which would normally do > >> nothing, to include some debug-only code so you can be notified if > >> the > >> default case is ever hit. Whenever I see an empty or just missing > >> 'default:' case, I always cringe. > > > > Whenever I see pointless debug fluff just for the sake of not having > > an > > empty or omitted default statement I cry. > > It's only pointless debug fluff until it saves untold numbers of hours > which would have been spent attempting to track down a bug that would > have been caught by the now critical test which took only about 10 > seconds to write. Maybe for complex cases... but you used a broad brush when you advocated always doing this and so I most point out the pointlessness of debug fluff for simple use cases. Since case statements are for the most part equivalent to if/else if/else statements, I must ask if you also enforce an else statement on all such conditionals. Such debugging should be done on a case by case basis depending on the particular scenario at hand. If the code is simple and obvious then debugging serves little purpose but to convolute the code. Cheers, Rob. -- http://www.interjinn.com Application and Templating Framework for PHP