Question

I have a bunch of procedures that need to be executed successively until either they are all executed, or a certain condition is met. Here’s the basic code that needs to be executed until a condition is met:

public boolean search()
{
    robot.go();

    robot.spin();

    //etc - around 8 more similar commands (each takes around 2 seconds)
    return false; //didn't find what it was looking for
}

So far, the only way that I’ve thought of doing what I wanted is this:

public boolean search()
{
    robot.go(false);
    while(robot.isMoving())
    {
        if(thingFound())
        {
            robot.stop()
            return true;
        }
        Thread.yield();
    }

    robot.spin(false);
    while(robot.isMoving())
    {
        if(thingFound())
        {
            robot.stop()
            return true;
        }
        Thread.yield();
    }


    //etc - around 8 more similar commands
    return false; //didn't find what it was looking for
}

The false parameter to go() and spin() indicates that they should return immediately, allowing the condition to be checked. However, this approach strikes me as rather inefficient, as the same block of code must be repeated 10 times. Could this be achieved more efficiently with exceptions or concurrent Threads?

Answer 1

based on Jonathan Leffler’s answer:
you can use a Runnable as pointer to the commands

private final Runnable going = new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        robot.go(false);
    }
});

private final Runnable spinning = new Runnable {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        robot.spin(false);
    }
});

// other commands 


private boolean isFoundAfter(Runnable command)
{
    command.run();
    while (robot.isMoving())
    {
        if (thingFound())
        {
            robot.stop()
            return true;
        }
        Thread.yield();
    }
    return false;
}

public boolean search()
{
    if (isFoundAfter(going)) return true;

    if (isFoundAfter(spinning)) return true;   

    //etc - around 8 more similar commands
    return false; //didn't find what it was looking for
}

one further step, if appropriate, put the commands in an array or a List and execute it as a script

...

private boolean executeSearch(Runnable... commands)
{
    for (Runnable cmd : commands) {
        if (isFoundAfter(cmd)) return true;
    }
    return false; //didn't find what it was looking for
}

public boolean search() {
    return executeSearch(going, spinning /* around 8 more similar commands */);
}