Should I make variables instead of functions?

Question

I recently discovered the power of getters/setters and I found out that instead of making functions that return somet$$anonymous$$ng you can rather make variables that return somet$$anonymous$$ng.

Are there any pros and cons for using either? I just can't decide on w$$anonymous$$ch to choose and I want to know more about it before I get a habit of doing somet$$anonymous$$ng I'll have to change in the future.

I know that variables can't pass parameters so I'll obviously just use a function in that scenario.

I wanna hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

Answer by tanoshimi · Jan 13, 2016 at 08:32 PM

A function does somet$$anonymous$$ng. A variable is somet$$anonymous$$ng. They're not interchangeable and you're going to need both in your code...

Add comment · Share

Answer 2

Answer by thesleeve · Jan 13, 2016 at 10:33 PM

I believe the proper term for t$$anonymous$$s is Properties, in C# lingo. A Property is accessed like a method (function) but it acts like a field (variable). Properties usually have getters and setters, as you mentioned.

Properties can be really useful because it allows an object to manage its own data. Here's a simple example from MSDN:

 public class Date
 {
     private int month = 7;  // Backing store
 
     public int Month
     {
         get
         {
             return month;
         }
         set
         {
             if ((value > 0) && (value < 13))
             {
                 month = value;
             }
         }
     }
 }

T$$anonymous$$s allows the object to make sure that it doesn't accept invalid data. Months only make sense if they're between 1 (January) and 12 (December), and t$$anonymous$$s class will not allow its month to be set to any values that don't conform to that restriction.

Basically, t$$anonymous$$s will help you from introducing bugs by setting values that don't make any sense.

Add comment · Show 4 · Share

Play Creatively · Jan 13, 2016 at 11:00 PM 0

Share

"Properties", okay. Gonna add that in my notepad, thanks! Still, as properties are basically functions, are there any pros/cons for using one over the other? The only recognizable difference is that you'll get to skip the () part for the properties which looks cleaner if anything.

thesleeve Play Creatively · Jan 14, 2016 at 12:00 AM 0

Share

Not sure if you read the rest of my post...

With a field (a.k.a. variable) you can do this: Date.month = 13; ...and it will actually set the month to 13. The problem, of course, is that there's no such thing as the 13th month in the year. It doesn't exist. There's no protective mechanism in place to prevent you from setting it to an invalid value.

Whereas, if you are implementing a property, as I described in my earlier post, you write this: Date.Month = 13; And the month will not change. That's because in the accessor (the set function), you provide this condition: if ((value > 0) && (value < 13)) { month = value; } This prevents the month from being set to an invalid value.

Play Creatively thesleeve · Jan 14, 2016 at 09:32 PM 0

Share

Oh, sorry, I understand. Wasn't really thinking about the fact that you can change the value of the variable (off course duh). The example I had stuck in my head was like: direction { get { return (vectorA - vectorB) } } That I can do either way, in this form (property) or a function that does the same. So when I found that out, I just though why would I ever do this in a function format. I guess in this case it's okay to use a property despite this being perfect for a function: ( direction() ) I just have been using functions for so long that I thought there would be a catch for using a property instead of a function in this scenario.

Show more comments

Should I make variables instead of functions?

2 Replies

Welcome to Unity Answers

Follow this Question

Related Questions