CODEWITHSUNDEEP
coding-style
Alex Li
Alex Li

Reputation: 274

Is it better to give a function an additional parameter, or to make the parameter static?

Many times I've come across a situation where I am calling a method many times with one parameter always exactly the same, and I need to add some additional parameter defined in my main method. I'm never sure what to do about the additional parameter. It seems like it might be a better idea to make the parameter static to make the code cleaner, but then, static variables are not very good. Still, adding parameters can in some cases lead to very long lists of parameters that are in a way unnecessary, and I imagine that there will be a speed disadvantage as well when your function is short, called often, and has a lot of parameters.

Here's the most recent code (kotlin) that has had me thinking about this problem, but I've ran into the problem a lot in different languages. 

tailrec fun getAncestor(ind: Int, parent: IntArray): Int {
        if (parent[ind] == ind) return ind else return getAncestor(parent[ind], parent);
}

Is it better to make parent a static variable and not have it as a parameter to the method? (Assume that every time that this method is called, the second parameter will be the same. I'm usually only writing short 100 line code files for competitive programming so there is no chance the method will be reused with a different second parameter)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 293

Answers (2)

Vedant
Vedant

Reputation: 46

In general if you're working on a project, you'll want to stay away from static variables because when the project starts scaling up and getting bigger, it'll be very hard to keep track of the static variables and this will make it very hard to debug. In competitive programming, I suggest go for the quicker approach.

Upvotes: 1

Maroš Šeleng
Maroš Šeleng

Reputation: 1640

In my opinion, it depends on your preferred coding paradigm. For instance, if you'd like your code to conform to the functional paradigm, your code is fine how it is now (regarding the parameter), however, if you don't care about the functional programming, having that param extracted out, as a constant is alright. I see no reason why it should be bad. If you worry about the performance, you could declare it as lazy, but otherwise it'd fine, I guess.

Upvotes: 1

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