A better alternative to cutting and pasting code

If you're new to coding, you'll be so concerned to be writing code that works that you may not take a look at coding technique. Your nose will be so close to the grindstone as you work that you won't take the time to look and ask "Do I need to keep grinding anyway?"

If you find yourself writing a piece of code and thinking "surely someone has done this before", they probably have, and the code is probably available to you - either as a standard PHP function of in resource libraries such as the PEAR and PECL. ((See footnote for other languages))

If you find yourself cutting and pasting part of your code, then STOP! - you should be turning that code into a function! "But I need to change a few things in the copy" I hear you saying. Maybe you do - and you have just identified those parts of the function code that will need to be passed in to it as parameters.

I wrote the text above in relation to PHP, but the same thing applies in almost every language.

In Perl, you write your shared code in a sub, and look on the CPAN resource library.

In Python, you write your shared code using a def, and look in the cheeseshop resource library.

In Java and C++ you write a method, in C a function, and in Tcl you write a proc. As I recall, in Fortran it's a subroutine or a function, and you may also come across words like macros and procedures ...
(written 2007-04-26 18:38:23)

Associated topics are indexed under

C204 - C and C based languages - Functions, Macros and programs in multiple files
H105 - PHP - Functions
J706 - Java - Objects and Classes
P209 - Subroutines in Perl
R104 - Ruby - Control Structures
T207 - Tcl/Tk - Procedures and Variable Scope
Y105 - Python - Functions, Modules and Packages

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