Say I have a system that I want to enable or disable, what do you think is best: to write two separate functions EnableSystem() and DisableSystem() OR have a singular function with the parameter to indicate the desired state, SystemState(bool state)?

I was wondering if there is a standard for this or a preference?

I would argue that having two separate functions is better since different things might happen under those functions but what if it is the situation where it really is just as simple as a 1 or a 0. Example if we have an LED we want to turn on an off it would just be passing the value of the parameter state.

Situation one:

void LEDEnable() {
     GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, true);
}

void LEDDisable() {
     GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, false);
}

Situation two:

void LEDState(bool state) {
     GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, state);
}
  • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    The main problem here is naming, because I don’t think there’s an English word that means “set whether this thing is enabled or disabled.” Maybe there is, and if you can come up with one, I think a combined function would be OK. If it’s clear that “not enabled” is the same as “disabled” then setEnabled is an OK function name.

    Another consideration is whether you typically have a boolean already that indicates the desired state (e.g. from a config file), or whether you work out whether to enable or disable this thing based on more complicated logic. If it’s the former, and you have to do this in several places, maybe the convenience of being able to just do setEnabled(flag) beats having to do if (flag) { enable(); } else { disable(); }.