do {…} while(false)

Question

I was looking at some code by an individual and noticed he seems to have a pattern in his functions:

 function()
{
 

        

Answer 1

Some coders prefer to only have a single exit/return from their functions. The use of a dummy do { .... } while(false); allows you to "break out" of the dummy loop once you've finished and still have a single return.

I'm a java coder, so my example would be something like

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class p45
{
    static List cakeNames = Arrays.asList("schwarzwald torte", "princess", "icecream");
    static Set forbidden = Stream.of(0, 2).collect(Collectors.toSet());

    public static  void main(String[] argv)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
        {
            System.out.println(String.format("cake(%d)=\"%s\"", i, describeCake(i)));
        }
    }


    static String describeCake(int typeOfCake)
    {
        String result = "unknown";
        do {
            // ensure type of cake is valid
            if (typeOfCake < 0 || typeOfCake >= cakeNames.size()) break;

            if (forbidden.contains(typeOfCake)) {
                result = "not for you!!";
                break;
            }

            result = cakeNames.get(typeOfCake);
        } while (false);
        return result;
    }
}