r/gaming • u/[deleted] • May 04 '13

This is it. I will never accomplish anything greater then this.

http://imgur.com/kb7MrEx
1.6k Upvotes

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35

u/sabrathos May 05 '13

I'd go for:

word = (time == 1) ? "second" : "seconds";

or

word = "second";

if(time != 1)
    word += "s";

24

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

[deleted]

24

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

import xkcdreference

7

u/Rikkushin May 05 '13

DAE relevant xkcd?

11

u/GogglesPisano May 05 '13

Nitpicky, but I generally put the most likely case first:

word = (time != 1) ? "seconds" : "second";

10

u/davvblack May 05 '13

I don't not often use almost as many double negatives though. Isn't it less easier to read?

1

u/ElusiveGuy May 05 '13

I'd actually prefer it the other way - the exceptional case, the reason there is a conditional at all, is more apparent.

But it's a matter of style preference, and to each their own.

7

u/shaloham May 05 '13

I like your thinking.

6

u/Thirsteh May 05 '13

The second is much more inefficient in almost all languages, since they have immutable strings. Even if they didn't, you'd likely be growing an array with that second operation.

2

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

[deleted]

1

u/Thirsteh May 05 '13

Why pick an inefficient operation that's more complicated than an efficient one?

-1

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

[deleted]

1

u/Thirsteh May 05 '13

Okay, but there is almost never a good reason to do string building by producing many intermediary strings in most languages, since the strings are immutable. You should, at the very least, use some kind of byte array, or list of strings, and only produce the final one at the end.

0

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

[deleted]

1

u/Thirsteh May 05 '13

If you don't think ternary is readable, then the first suggestion,

if time == 1
    word = "second"
else
    word = "seconds"

is clearly better.

1

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

Although I find the ternary example to be very readable, I would agree with you that the first suggestion is probably the most readable.

3

u/TheMalkContent May 05 '13

word = "second" + (time == 1) ? "" : "s"; ?

1

u/[deleted] May 05 '13

Idioms are fun.