Question

A colleague of mine states that booleans as method arguments are not acceptable. They shall be replaced by enumerations. At first I did not see any benefit, but he gave me an example.

What’s easier to understand?

file.writeData( data, true ); 

Or

enum WriteMode {   Append,   Overwrite };  file.writeData( data, Append ); 

Now I got it! 😉
This is definitely an example where an enumeration as second parameter makes the code much more readable.

So, what’s your opinion on this topic?

Answer 1

Boolean’s represent ‘yes/no’ choices. If you want to represent a ‘yes/no’, then use a boolean, it should be self-explanatory.

But if it’s a choice between two options, neither of which is clearly yes or no, then an enum can sometimes be more readable.