"result" is fine. That is the variable you will end up returning that you have to fill with stuff first.
"data" on the other hand…
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
"result" is fine. That is the variable you will end up returning that you have to fill with stuff first.
"data" on the other hand…
I came here to say this.
Declare result
in the first line of the function and return result
is the last line. In C++, this is a big hint to the compiler that you want return value optimization to kick in.
I remember one GitHub project that implemented some algorithm (I think it was Dijkstra's) but only used 4 or 5 single letter variables and just kept reusing them.
Maybe they had a background in low-level assembly code? If you're writing assembly that's kinda sorta how you'd handle registers.
When you are used to math equations, it's easy to slip into that habit.
Single letter variables, yes. Reusing them? No.
When I was in college, I had a guy that I was working on a project with that did this constantly. At one point I looked at one of his files and the variables were named a, b, c, aa, ab, ac, ba, bb, etc. That when I was like, bro, you gotta stop doing this.
"Inside you there are two wolves..." or something:
Option 1: Sit down with them and go line by line through it. Make him identify each variable's purpose and then immediately find and replace to rename every instance with a more descriptive name.
Option 2: Small script to shuffle the variable names in his code around after each of his commits.