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William Bode
7,105 PointsCoding Challenge: is this a good answer, or lazy hacking?
Hey,
I solved the coding challenge for the "contains?" method like this:
def contains? return !!find_index(name) end
Now I am doubting whether this is a good application of DRY, or if I am abusing the find_index method?
1 Answer
Alexander Revell
5,782 PointsA more elegant answer might be something like:
def contains?(name)
find_index(name) ? true : false
end
where you are asking whether the find_index method can locate the name. The question mark's job is to basically pose a question to what comes before it - asking find_index what it will return. If it returns a truthy value (such as an index number, or almost anything that isn't nil) it returns the first parameter – true. If it gets nil from find_index, or some other falsey value, it returns false.
Sorry if you already knew about this, it's nice and tidy and seemed a good solution to this question.
William Bode
7,105 PointsWilliam Bode
7,105 PointsThank you. I did not know about this before, and it looks very pretty. My question however was more on the general side - is it considered to be "good programming" to "abuse" functions like this, or will I run into trouble if I will continue this style?