Do you use assertions? [closed]

Answer 1

The only real use for assertions after unit testing was introduced is to communicate the invariant of a method to other programmers. And it is much better to do this in actual code than in comments which they will ignore anyway. It is hard to ignore an assert!

Answer 2

Nope, never use them. Dunno why, just never got into the habit.

Answer 3

Yes! Always! The keyword is my very best friend in every language!

There's no real reason not to use asserts, they ensure that the basic assumptions I make on input values and states are upheld.

If an assert fails, it means that I need to re-evaluate my assumptions and update the code to handle new exotic input that I did not think of when writing the current revision. What's not to like about that?

As usual in programming, it's a tool that's powerful only when used properly.

Answer 4

Yes, I use asserts all the time, basically whenever I'm making an assumption that:

1. Can be checked with a fairly simple predicate.
2. Isn't obviously true simply from reading the nearby code.

However, for asserts that are likely to have a negligible impact on performance, I use the enforce function in the D programming language standard library instead of assert. This does basically the same thing as assert except that it stays around in release mode. For more expensive assertions, I use assert, which is stripped from release mode builds.

Answer 5

I tend to check for error conditions and throw exceptions instead. The reason is that I want these conditions to always be checked, even in production, and exceptions provide for easier handling of the failed condition rather than assertions.

Answer 6

Short answer - Yes.

Long Answer - Not always, but quite often. I usually use assertions for errors I know I can do nothing about(while the program is running) and logging isn't really required. For example - If I have to check if a certain value is out of bounds or if a pointer is NULL even though it should have some value.

For other stuff like "Parsing files" and "File couldn't be found", I usually throw exceptions. That way I can log the error and use some fail safe file/method instead.

And I quite agree with with Falaina, you really should make it a point to notice - "HEY! I'm making some assumptions here"