Clever if/else statement

Tann_San

Hey all, got another neat code snippet from this post in the Flash forum, the initial question is quite a common one but it's their second post that has this little gem:

if(condition){
result = _root.eff * 10;
}
else if (condition){
result = _root.eff * 2;
}
else{
result = _root.eff * 1;
}

trace(result);

I should point out that _root.eff hasn't actually been set to anything yet so it's still traced as undefined before the if statement even starts. It's pretty clear that condition has been left in from a copy n paste job but I have this sneaking suspicion that instead of change it's name in the if/else statement they just changed their original var name. Its hard to tell since I think I scared them off after pointing out the problems in their post...

Disiance

Good God Almighty...

At first glance I noticed it was a true/false test, so I assumed the WTF would be the else { } block, test for true, then false, and then maybe, I dunno, FileNotFound?

But my god, can you at least decide what to do on true?

Good WTF there.

emurphy

[quote user="Tann San"]

Hey all, got another neat code snippet from this post in the Flash forum, the initial question is quite a common one but it's their second post that has this little gem:

if(condition){
result = _root.eff * 10;
}
else if (condition){
result = _root.eff * 2;
}
else{
result = _root.eff * 1;
}

trace(result);

I should point out that _root.eff hasn't actually been set to anything yet so it's still traced as undefined before the if statement even starts. It's pretty clear that condition has been left in from a copy n paste job but I have this sneaking suspicion that instead of change it's name in the if/else statement they just changed their original var name. Its hard to tell since I think I scared them off after pointing out the problems in their post...

[/quote]

Well, obviously condition is volatile. </sarcasm>

R_Flowers

[quote user="Disiance"]

At first glance I noticed it was a true/false test, so I assumed the WTF would be the else { } block, test for true, then false, and then maybe, I dunno, FileNotFound?

[/quote]

Well I don't know... since it's

if (condition){

... } else if(condition) { ....

Which means it's checking for condtion to be true twice in a row - right?

Maybe it's Flash with threads, and they're checking if condtion changes in those few processor ticks... :)

Disiance

[quote user="R.Flowers"][quote user="Disiance"]

At first glance I noticed it was a true/false test, so I assumed the WTF would be the else { } block, test for true, then false, and then maybe, I dunno, FileNotFound?

[/quote]

Well I don't know... since it's

if (condition){ ... } else if(condition) { ....

Which means it's checking for condtion to be true twice in a row - right?

Maybe it's Flash with threads, and they're checking if condtion changes in those few processor ticks... :)[/quote]

Yep, that's what it's doing, but from my first glance I expected it to check true and then false and then else, which would be a WTF, but it's just checking true twice, with a different result in each, which is even a bigger WTF.

cconroy

This must be some definition of "clever" of which I was previously unaware.

evnafets

Maybe the process of checking the condition sets it so that the second evaluation of the condition results to true?

That would be dastardly clever.

Disiance

Not possible, as soon as the first if() statement fires, the other two won't get a chance to be parsed. So this is exactly (more of less) what the thread starter said it was, bad copy & pasting job by someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

no, If the first condition returns false but changes a variable so that the next time condition is run it will return true then the second statement wil in fact run. However it would still suck because of a little thing we call side effects.

MET

Perhaps they overloaded the multiplication operator to change the value of condition. That would make them an u83r l33t k0d3r :)