“missing return statement”, but I know it is there

Question

Assume I have the following function:

// Precondition:  foo is \'0\' or \'MAGIC_NUMBER_4711\'
// Returns:       -1 if foo is \'0\'
//                 1 if fo         


        

Answer 1

Actually the compiler is doing exactly what it should.

int transmogrify(int foo) {
    if (foo == 0) {
        return -1;
    } else if (foo == MAGIC_NUMBER_4711) {
        return 1;
    }
    // you know you shouldn't get here, but the compiler has
    // NO WAY of knowing that.  In addition, you are putting
    // great potential for the caller to create a nice bug.
    // Why don't you catch the error using an ELSE clause?
    else {
        error( "transmorgify had invalid value %d", foo ) ;
        return 0 ;
    } 
}