I understand that void methods can't be used in expressions, that why I think your suggestions are a good idea. My desire is to differentiate between methods which modify the array arg and those that create, modify, and return a copy of the arg. I see the latter as requiring more memory, and being slightly wasteful in situations where I don't need a return value. That's why I'm proposing that we keep both methods.
Do you think that keeping both is a bad idea?
Gary Gregory wrote:
I think I like it BUT the issue you raise is an orthogonal one.
(1) A method that returns void cannot be used in an expression, period. Client can always ignore the return value and it does not cost the app anything.
(2) Whether or not the array is twiddled in-place or not is a separate issue and we are talking about a new API. So let's deal with both separately. For a new API I see the following possibilities:
(2.1.1) reverseCopy(type array[])
Sorts with reverse.
(2.1.1) reverseAsCopy(type array[]) Sorts with reverse, a little better.
(2.2) copyReverse(type array[]) Makes copying the most prominent verb, not quite right IMHO.
(2.3) reverse(type array[], boolean copyFirst) Barf.
Gary
-----Original Message----- From: __matthewHawthorne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:09 To: Jakarta Commons Developers List Subject: Re: [lang] ArrayUtils.reverse
I think it's a good idea, but I like method that returns void also, because it may save memory by modifying the input array.
Maybe your suggested method should be renamed to:
Object[] copyReverse(final Object[] array)
and be modified to not operate on the argument, but instead create a copy of it and return the reverse of the copy.
What do you think?
Gary Gregory wrote:
Hello,
How about returning the argument instead of void for these APIs such
that
they can be used in expressions?
Now ArrayUtils:
public static void reverse(final Object[] array) {
Proposal:
public static Object[] reverse(final Object[] array) {
I ran into this with the Object[] version of the API but this applies to
all
other ArrayUtils.reverse APIs.
This change should backwards compatible with a recompile of client code.
Thanks, Gary
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
