this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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Programming

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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);
}
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[–] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

I wouldn't use SystemState for a boolean. Better to have Enable() or Disable().

The consideration is about what the consumer of that code knows about it. If it knows less about the inner workings and state, it has lower coupling. You can more easily change 1 without changing all the callers of it. Ideally code, especially in object oriented programming should have high cohesion (each class has one purpose and one reason for change) and low coupling.

Most stuff depends but those concepts can guide you. Learning SOLID principles helps to write better code.