Questions tagged [comparative-review]
This tag is used for questions which present a problem and multiple solutions, where the asker wishes to know which solution is best (and why).
931
questions
39
votes
10
answers
9k
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Which FizzBuzz is better, and why?
I was in an interview and the guy asked me to do the typical FizzBuzz question of printing numbers 1-100, but for each factor of 3 print Fizz, each factor of 5 print Buzz, and each factor of both ...
- 581
36
votes
3
answers
11k
views
Ensuring user input is an integer in a range
I have isolated a little bit of code that was causing a small debate between myself and another user. I have taken some of the things that he said and meshed it with the code that was being reviewed ...
- 28.6k
33
votes
6
answers
3k
views
To 'this' or not to 'this'?
I was given a homework and I have 2 solutions: one that uses this and other one that doesn't.
I tested both solutions on jsPerf but sometimes it says the version ...
- 799
30
votes
9
answers
58k
views
Check a string to see if it is a palindrome
I have written two code pieces to check if a given string is a palindrome:
...
- 1,066
30
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Java method - levels of abstraction
In his Clean Code book, Robert C. Martin states that functions should do only one thing and one should not mix different levels of abstraction. So I started wondering whether the code below meets ...
- 465
27
votes
4
answers
102k
views
Filtering a list of vertices that lie inside a cylinder, with and without LINQ
Since I don't know how LINQ works under the hood, I can't decide what version is best to use in term of rapidity of execution. I've done some testing with my testing data (Point Cloud) but I can't see ...
23
votes
11
answers
11k
views
Find nth Fibonacci Number, using iteration and recursion
I'm a beginner programmer and I came upon this problem which is to find the nth number in the Fibonacci series.
I used to solve the problem using a for loop; ...
- 409
23
votes
5
answers
2k
views
When a constructor calls a helper function, should the helper mutate the object or return part of the object?
I have a private method that is called from the constructor to instantiate a bunch of objects.
I can do it two ways.
...
- 1,326
19
votes
2
answers
543
views
Count the occurence of nucleobases in DNA string
Inspired by this meta question I decided to take a look at Rosalind. Their first challenge seemed easy enough:
An example of a length 21 DNA string (whose alphabet contains the symbols 'A', 'C', 'G', ...
Mast♦
- 13.1k
18
votes
4
answers
11k
views
20 Ways to do Random Sampling
Here is a (small project) code for practicing Python, it comprises 20 variety of functions that each works to return \$n\$ random samples from a set of data.
The code mostly uses the ...
- 1,132
18
votes
11
answers
1k
views
Reversing a string
I had this as an interview question, and the interviewer pointed this out. Here's what I wrote:
...
- 1,470
18
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Subclassing pathlib.Path
This arises from the SO Question subclassing pathlib.Path.
The pathlib sources show that Path, when invoked, selects one of ...
- 301
17
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Shoe shine shop model in Rust
I'm learning Rust and a few questions did arise during translation of my C++ code to Rust. There are comments in Rust code I'd like to be answered. Is there an idiomatic way to solve this task? The ...
- 403
16
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Sieve of Sundaram for Project Euler 7: Python implementation slower than C++ and R
A friend of mine recently started learning R, and she complained to me that R is very slow. She was working on Project Euler Problem 7, which asks for the value of the 10001st prime number. For ...
- 591
16
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Get the first item in a sequence that matches a condition
I've been trying to figure out what's the best, most Pythonic way to get the first element of a sequence that matches a condition. Here are three options:
I don't like that I've written ...
- 263
16
votes
4
answers
35k
views
Split Collection to two list depend on criteria
Let's say I have a List contains numbers:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
and I would like to split this to two lists:
odd numbers
even numbers
So I can do this two ways:
Solution 1:
Create two methods:
<...
- 415
16
votes
3
answers
4k
views
On Knuth's "Algorithm L" to generate permutations in lexicographic order
I needed a method to generate all permutations of given elements, so I decided to
implement "Algorithm L (Lexicographic permutation generation)" from
Donald E. Knuth, "GENERATING ALL PERMUTATIONS"
in ...
- 23.1k
15
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Java and C++ stack implementations with dramatically different performance
I'm developing a small programming language for use in any project I have where I feel a small scripting language could be used well. I've written two emulators for the language, one in C++ and one in ...
- 479
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Message-formatting code with pluralization, revised to be more functional
I'm a C++ dev, and I've recently started working my way through Clean Code*. Whenever I encounter an example I think I could improve, I try to re-implement it in C++.
On pp. 28-29 there is an example ...
- 183
15
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Generating formatted multiplication tables in C++
I am self studying C++ from Robert Lafore's OOP in C++. I am solving the first exercise questions of chapter-3 loop and decisions. I've written three different codes using different approaches. I want ...
- 251
14
votes
8
answers
29k
views
Two FizzBuzz solutions
Below are two solutions to the FizzBuzz problem in Python. Which one of these is more "Pythonic" and why is it more "Pythonic" than the other?
Solution One:
...
- 561
14
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Unit tests for testing error codes
Both unit tests pass and they both test the same thing. The production code uses the right error codes.
System Under Test (SUT)
...
- 320
14
votes
2
answers
27k
views
Flatten an array - loop or reduce?
Problem: Concat all sub-arrays of a given array.
Example input: [[0, 1], [2, 3], [4, 5]]
Example output: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
...
14
votes
2
answers
704
views
Get the encrypted payload from an unencrypted wrapper PDF document
This is code, written by our dev team, and SonarQube tells me that the Cognitive Complexity is too high: 21, and the current (default, out of the box) metric limit is 15. I've had a go at reducing the ...
- 241
14
votes
2
answers
21k
views
Forking with PHP (4 different approaches)
I thought about three (now four) different ways how to execute forks with PHP.
What is the faster, maybe better solution and why?
PHP script included
...
- 261
13
votes
5
answers
52k
views
Simple countdown programs to print "3, 2, 1, Action!" using while loop
My program is a simple while loop making a countdown starting from 3 and shouts "Action!" upon reaching zero and then breaks. I would like to know which of the following ways is better in means of ...
- 131
13
votes
6
answers
2k
views
"Do you owe the government?" classes
Should my class pass parameters internally or reference class level scoped variables?
I'm not sure on the best approach or style for procedure calls that have parameters. Should I go with the class ...
- 347
13
votes
6
answers
924
views
Assign a variant to a variant
Quick review:
I've been writing API code which receives user input that can come as either an object or a value type - a problem outlined here.
In order to write an unknown data type to a variable, ...
- 2,345
13
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Functions to hide and reclaim first visible publication on a page using Selenium
I have the following functions in JavaScript:
...
- 697
12
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Extraction of value from a dict-tree, given a path of arbitrary length
Problem: We read a complex json-file which grants us a tree in terms of a python "dict of dicts". We're then requested to retrieve a specific path from the tree, represented by a list of elements. The ...
- 223
12
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Parsing an email string
My program needs to parse an e-mail string. There are two possibilities to enter an e-mail-address. Either with the alias or without one, plain the e-mail-address.
1st possibity:
...
- 662
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Calculating Fibonacci sequence in several different ways
I'm doing an experiment trying to freshen up my unit-testing and learn dynamic programming. Every test passes but I'm curious of the result of some of them and worried if I'm doing the testing ...
- 414
12
votes
2
answers
700
views
Printing removed items using lambdas and streams
I'm struggling to make my lambdas readable.
I've seen various approaches. Below are three different examples that all do the same thing.
Forgive the example: I suspect there are better actual ...
- 221
12
votes
3
answers
624
views
Becoming the greatest tower builder
I am trying to learn how to write proper code in python, and stumbled upon the following problem.
Bob is given a set of building blocks b, and a number ...
- 5,705
12
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Get values from Web service asynchronously
I am working on creating some libraries for a project at work and I wanted to make sure I have this pattern correct. Assuming that the GetWidgets() method is what I ...
- 223
12
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Packing and unpacking two 32-bit integers into an unsigned 64-bit integer
Does this look good for combining/retrieving two 32 bit integers (a type and an index) into/from an unsigned 64 bit integer (a unique ID)?
The point is to hide in the API the composition of the ...
- 223
11
votes
4
answers
541
views
Function to format the local time
This is a statement that I use a lot in my code base:
(LocalDateTime.now()).format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("ssmmHHddMMMuu"))
Should I create a static method ...
- 229
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Generating the sequence of the digits that appear in the sequence of natural numbers
This is a revisit to a question already asked here about a year and a half ago.
Project Euler's Problem 40 involves generating the sequence of digits that appear in the natural numbers, all ...
- 213
11
votes
4
answers
9k
views
Trimming fgets(): strlen() or strtok()
After a successful fgets(buffer, ...), it is often desirable to trim a potential End-of-Line '\n'.
Of the following 2 methods, ...
- 30.4k
11
votes
2
answers
16k
views
Semantic markup for card blocks
I'm using Bootstrap. I'm doing my best to work with more semantic markup and getting away from divitis.
Several of these "card" blocks appear on a page, like this.
Original:
...
user162026
11
votes
1
answer
502
views
Sequence-based enumeration of permutations in lexicographic order
This is follow-up on
On Knuth's "Algorithm L" to generate permutations in lexicographic order,
where I presented the following method to enumerate all permutations of array elements
in ...
- 23.1k
11
votes
1
answer
223
views
Counting times a file was committed to Git
A long time ago I implemented some code to walk the git commit graph. I recently updated the accompanying analytics part of the code base to follow file moves/renames in order to get a more accurate ...
- 30.8k
11
votes
1
answer
434
views
Testing a list of proxies for validity concurrently
I have a class that tests a list of proxies for validity concurrently, which I have created in 2 different ways, one utilizing Parallel.ForEach and the other using a TPL Dataflow ActionBlock.
I am ...
- 425
10
votes
8
answers
13k
views
Calculate square of a number without multiplication
I wrote these two methods to calculate the square of a number:
...
user34073
10
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Length of a C string, capped to some maximum
If I have a oneliner in C such as
size_t maxSizeOf(const char *s)
{
return strlen(s) > M_MAX_SIZE ? M_MAX_SIZE : strlen(s);
}
would it be better to have ...
- 567
10
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Sum Square Difference, which way is more Pythonic?
I'm using python 3 and I am creating an algorithm to find the sum square difference for the first 100 (or 1 to x) natural numbers. This happens to be project euler problem 6 if anyone is wondering.
I'...
- 121
10
votes
5
answers
4k
views
"Of three points supplied, is one a midpoint of the other two?"
Write a method named hasMidpoint that accepts three integers as parameters and returns true if one of the integers is the midpoint between the other two integers; ...
- 1,935
10
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Getting filtered autolist
Is there a better way to write the following code fragment?
I can't have more than 10 conditional statement in my method as it gives cyclomatic complexity.
...
- 203
10
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Shuffling multiple iterators in order
I have a Python function w/ specified functionality, and two proposed approaches - which do you prefer, and why? (performance, simplicity, clarity, etc) (both use ...
10
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Title case a sentence function
I am new to programming. I have written a solution in two different ways, but would like to know what is considered a better solution, and why.
Additionally, in terms of performance, why would one ...
- 203