On 7/27/2014 4:29 PM, MacQueen, Don wrote:
As long as people are sharing their preferences . . .
I find return() useful in a scenario like the following:
Myfun <- function() {
{a few lines of code}
if (condition) return(whatever)
{Many, many lines of code}
Results
}
Which I find preferable to
Myfun <- function() {
{ a few lines of code}
if (condition) {
Results <- something
} else {
{Many, many lines of code}
Results <- something.else
}
Results
}
It is the presence of those many lines of code which separate the opening
and closing brackets after the else that make the former easier to read
and understand (again in my opinion).
Thanks for the comment. I prefer that style, also.
However, I'm also sympathetic to Bill Dunlap's opinion that,
"They are the equivalent of goto statements." I was hoping to elicit a
response from someone with a reference to a study suggesting that " if
(condition) return(whatever)" is either better than, equivalent to, or
worse than "if ... else". I can easily change my preference on this if
research supports Dunlap and Newmiller against you, Bert Gunter, and me.
Spencer
I guess this is more along the lines of exception handling.
Also note that this is something of a special case; I don¹t in general
advocate using return().
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