Returning the next node

Question

What is considered to be a good programming practice for returning value from the function? For example, if we have a function in C named list* after( list *node), which returns the node which is after the node pointer.

First option:

node *after(node *first_ptr, node *nod_ptr)
{

    if (!(is_last(first_ptr, nod_ptr)) && !( first_ptr==NULL) && nod_ptr != NULL ) {

        while (first_ptr != nod_ptr && first_ptr != NULL){

            first_ptr = first_ptr->next;

        }

        return first_ptr != NULL ? first_ptr->next : NULL;

    }

     return NULL;

} 

Second option:

node *after(node *first_ptr, node *nod_ptr)
{

    node *temp=NULL;
    if (!(is_last(first_ptr, nod_ptr)) && !( first_ptr==NULL) && nod_ptr != NULL ) {

        while (first_ptr != nod_ptr){

            first_ptr = first_ptr->next;
            temp = first_ptr;
            if(temp == NULL){

              break;
            }
            temp = temp->next;
        }


    }

     return temp;

} 

Here node is typedef structure and next is a pointer to next element in the list and is_last(node *,node *) checks whether the second argument pointer is the last element in the list having start pointer as the first argument.

I'm wondering, in general, if big functions are necessary. Which seems nicer to understand?

Answer 1

Your after() function is actually doing two things: it returns nod_ptr->next, but with the stipulation that the list starting at first_ptr contains nod_ptr. Therefore, you should decompose it into two functions.

/**
 * Returns the content node if it is contained in the list starting at
 * head, otherwise NULL.  The list must not contain a cycle.
 */
node *find(node *head, node *content)
{
    for (node *n = head; n != NULL; n = n->next)
    {
        if (n == content)
        {
            return content;
        }
    }
    return NULL;
}

/**
 * If the list starting at head contains content, returns content->next.
 * Otherwise, returns NULL.
 */
node *after(node *head, node *content)
{
    return (content != NULL && find(head, content)) ? content->next
                                                    : NULL;
}