> I've just started to write a bit of code in Julia and I'm still exploring > the best ways of doing this and that. I'm having this small problem now and > wanted to ask for your advice.
Excellent, welcome aboard! > 1. Use different function names: getitems, getitems_maxid. Not too elegant > as you mix purpose and details of function usage in its name. > 2. Use named arguments. This will cause the function implementation to grow > (a series of if / else), again not too elegant. > 3. Define a new type: ItemId which behaves exactly as Int but can be used > to 'activate' multiple dispatch (one function would use Int and the second > one would use ItemId). Generally not the best approach if you have methods > each having an argument that should be really represented as an Int rather > than a new type. For dispatch to work you have to use #3. By the same logic you use in #1 this is good: a 3 of ItemId has different "units" to a 3 of maxnumitems. For instance, you shouldn't be able to do ItemId + maxnumitems. Using different types gives you that and is the most Julian approach but #1 and #2 work fine and might be the right solution at times too. Note that a type such as immutable ItemId id::Int end is as performant as an Int. (also note the spelling of variables: types are in CamelCase, values in lowercase with _)
