3 ms·

I'd suggest you not leave if statements un-braced. I remember a study where they found the most common bug in most experienced open source developers was leavin

I'd suggest you not leave if statements un-braced. I remember a study where they found the most common bug in most experienced open source developers was leaving out the braced initially, going back to make a change, and having that change introduce a bug. Basically they had if (x) then() and went back and did if (x) new_call() then() and caused an error that happened silently. This is something you definitely want to avoid and I personally don't trust myself, after a no-sleep code fixing bender, to remember to add {} around something if I'm editing an if. I'd probably forget. Again, I'd say shorter does not mean better.

deleted 10y ago
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papaf 10y ago
One way round this is to put single statement ifs on a single line: if (x) then(); If you add another statement to the if, its obvious from the indent that you need to use braces.
- petre 10y ago
  Yup, I always do this when writing JavaScript or other languages that allow prefix single statements with or without braces. Otherwise I use braces if the statement is too long to fit in the editor w/o forcing you to scroll. Perl only allows postfixed single statements w/o braces, so you're safe: say "yes" if $condition; if ($condition) { say "yes"; $affirmative++; }
gpderetta 10y ago
7: warning: this 'if' clause does not guard... [-Wmisleading-indentation] if (x) ^~ 9 : note: ...this statement, but the latter is misleadingly indented as if it is guarded by the 'if' then(); ^~~~
- gravypod 10y ago
  Relying on compiler-specific features.... where did I hear that before? Oh yea, undefined behavior. Do you like using undefined behavior?
  - gpderetta 10y ago
    That's just a warning. It has no effect on the generated code. It is perfectly acceptable, and in fact considered proper engineering practice, to compile with multiple compilers to take advantage of their warning and static analysis capabilities.

deleted 10y ago

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papaf 10y ago

One way round this is to put single statement ifs on a single line: if (x) then(); If you add another statement to the if, its obvious from the indent that you need to use braces.

petre 10y ago
Yup, I always do this when writing JavaScript or other languages that allow prefix single statements with or without braces. Otherwise I use braces if the statement is too long to fit in the editor w/o forcing you to scroll. Perl only allows postfixed single statements w/o braces, so you're safe: say "yes" if $condition; if ($condition) { say "yes"; $affirmative++; }

gpderetta 10y ago

7: warning: this 'if' clause does not guard... [-Wmisleading-indentation] if (x) ^~ 9 : note: ...this statement, but the latter is misleadingly indented as if it is guarded by the 'if' then(); ^~~~

gravypod 10y ago
Relying on compiler-specific features.... where did I hear that before? Oh yea, undefined behavior. Do you like using undefined behavior?
- gpderetta 10y ago
  That's just a warning. It has no effect on the generated code. It is perfectly acceptable, and in fact considered proper engineering practice, to compile with multiple compilers to take advantage of their warning and static analysis capabilities.