On 6 Nov 2002 at 4:46, CBFalconer wrote:
There is NEVER any reason for an empty else.
Clarity, perhaps? What would be your preference for rewriting: IF a THEN IF b THEN c ELSE { null } ELSE IF d THEN e; ...without the empty ELSE? This represents the logical conditions: * c iff a and b * e iff not a and d It could be written without an empty ELSE as two statements: IF a AND b THEN c; IF NOT a AND d THEN e; ...but that wouldn't be equivalent if "a" was a function with side-effects (e.g.). Alternatives might be a Boolean variable for the value of "a", or encapsulating the second IF statement in a BEGIN-END block. Whether those are clearer than the empty ELSE is problematic (although an empty ELSE surely should be commented). -- Dave