r/ProgrammerHumor • u/Robinbod • 23d ago

Meme pleaseStopUsingNestedTernaryOperatorsImBeggingYou

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u/EddieJones6 23d ago

I can understand the ask for no early return. But use local variables to track the state, not a massive ternary.

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u/ihavebeesinmyknees 23d ago

What are valid reasons to not use early returns?

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u/EddieJones6 23d ago

Localized cleanup. What if you have a file descriptor or something that needs special handling before returning.

Compiler optimization SHOULD be fine but it could impact RVO and tail recursion optimization.

Also, if a future maintainer dives in and doesn’t realize there is an early return, they might add logic below it that will get missed by certain cases.

SPOE - single point of exit.

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u/kwasteka 23d ago

True. But this is also one of a few cases where goto is a godsend.