Would you see any use of a Trilean (True, False, ??)
Posted
by
Sybiam
on Programmers
See other posts from Programmers
or by Sybiam
Published on 2010-12-30T14:44:12Z
Indexed on
2010/12/30
15:01 UTC
Read the original article
Hit count: 168
syntax
I don't know if I'm alone but sometimes I have a function that should return true or false. But in some case there would be a third result that would make more sense.
In some language theses cases would be handled with integers or with exception.
For exemple you want to handle the age of a user if he is over 18 years old. And you have a function like this.
if(user.isAdult(country_code)){
//Go On
}else{
// Block access or do nothing
}
But in some case depending how your app is built I could see case where the birthday field is incomplete. Then this function should return something undetermined.
switch(user.isAdult()){
case true:
// go on
break;
case undetermined:
//Inform user birthday is incomplete
case false:
//Block access
}
As i said we can handle that with Exceptions and Int, but I would find it quite sexy to have a true, false, undetermined embeded in the language instead of using some home defined constants.
© Programmers or respective owner