Alternative DynArray Find() function

[Major Cooke]

I suggest a different find function, such as Find2 or Search, which returns -1 instead of the array's size.

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int s = LargeKids.Find(who);
if (LargeKids.Size() > 0 && s < LargeKids.Size())

It'd allow reduction of this code to just this:

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if (LargeKids.Search(who) >= 0)

[_mental_]

Why don't you write it like this?

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if (LargeKids.Find(who) != LargeKids.Size())

[Marisa the Magician]

Because it's one function call less?

[Blue Shadow]

This just feels more like laziness if you can't be bothered to do one extra function call.

[Xaser]

Find() returns Size()? My first reaction to that is "wait WTF?"

-1 would be preferable if we had a time macine, but at this point the damage has been done because adding a Find2 would just change the gotcha from "remember to compare against Size()" to "remember to use Find2()" -- i.e. it's not any less confusing.

[Major Cooke]

This just feels more like laziness if you can't be bothered to do one extra function call.

It's not laziness. It's a massive WTF factor like Xaser said.

And I use this on tons of arrays. The amount of overhead made can be quite ridiculous.

Why don't you write it like this?

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if (LargeKids.Find(who) != LargeKids.Size())

When I did long ago, it had a VM abort. I see it's been fixed since, when performed on empty arrays.

Still two function calls that can be reduced down to one though, IMO.

[Graf Zahl]

Because it's one function call less?

Size() is no function call, it's an intrinsic.

[Major Cooke]

OH, that's right... I forgot about that. Which means its actually faster than a function call isn't it?

[Graf Zahl]

Depending on where the array comes from it's like accessing a member variable in a class or reading a field from a local struct.

I have no idea why Randi implemented it this way. Had I written this function it'd have returned UINT_MAX, which is a lot less problematic to check.

[Marisa the Magician]

But isn't UINT_MAX pretty much equal to -1 for signed int?

[Graf Zahl]

Depends on what compiler you use.
Ask the C standards guys and they tell you it's undefined.