Re: Why Return[] does not work?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg109454] Re: Why Return[] does not work?
- From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
- Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:28:42 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: CNNTP
- References: <hr6ihp$2f8$1@smc.vnet.net>
Am 27.04.2010 13:41, schrieb Dims:
> I wrote a function to check if two lists contain equal members:
>
> Intersects[x_List,
> y_List] := (Do[(Print["Outer step ", xi];
> Do[(Print[xi, yi];
> If[xi == yi, (Print["Returning True"]; Return[True])]), {yi,
> y}]), {xi, x}]; False)
>
> But it returns False for interecting lists:
>
> In[47]:= Intersects[{a, b}, {c, a}]
> During evaluation of In[47]:= Outer step a
> During evaluation of In[47]:= ac
> During evaluation of In[47]:= aa
> During evaluation of In[47]:= Returning True
> During evaluation of In[47]:= Outer step b
> During evaluation of In[47]:= bc
> During evaluation of In[47]:= ba
> Out[47]= False
>
> Few questions:
>
> 1) why does not Return[] interrupt the loops?
Return behaves not as people expect in many circumstances. I found that
I almost never really need it in my code because for every possible use
case there are other mechanisms that work more reliable.
> 2) is there better way to implement intersection check?
There is Break which would be the natural choice to break loops,
but I think usually Throw and Catch are the best choice in these situations:
Intersects[x_List, y_List] := Catch[
Do[
Print["Outer step ", xi];
Do[
Print[xi, yi];
If[xi == yi, Print["Returning True"]; Throw[True]],
{yi, y}
], {xi, x}
];
False
]
depending on what you try to achieve there might be better mechanisms
than do loops which stop at certain conditions...
hth,
albert