Around 01:53am on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 (UK time), nimak247 scrawled:
> Still, I don't understand what 'Asserts' are?? It is tied to an
> expression, I get that, but I guess I am wondering what they are used
> for? Why would you use an assert instead of a try/catch???
An assertion is a quick and dirty test for an errors that is used for
debugging/testing only. You assert a condition is true and if it isn't
the program will error. When the release version is compiled the assert
lines are ignored.
So you could use them in a loop that pops of a stack, asserting that
there is always at least one item on the stack before you pop. During
testing (using the debug version) the assert is always tested.
When you get to the release version the assert is ignored when the
program is compiled, so that a) its faster, and b) your users don't get
quick and dirty error messages. However they are left in the source
code so can be reused whenever any changes are made in the future.
It is important that the assert never changes any variables, or the
release version will behave differently.
assert(x = 1)
rather than:
asset(x == 1)
is the classic example.
Steve
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting a bad thing?
01:57:23 up 9 days, 8:29, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.12, 0.06
