Question

I have a method that needs to retrieve a type of size so for example I need a string to be returned that says “small”, “medium” or “large”.

So I call GetSize(int size). But I also need to know how I want to return the size, do I want to return “small” or do I want to return “s”. So the method grew to GetSize(int size, enum format).

Now I could do a switch case but it would be

switch (size)    
 {    
    case SMALL_SIZE:  
       switch(format)  
          case format::short  
          case format::long  
 }

So I would have to do a switch case inside every case for “size”. I could also break it down and call a method to get the format on every size case.

This seems like a lot of work, and I only have 3 cases of sizes here but imagine it was 10 cases for something else. Are my solutions best or is there a better way?

Answer 1

It appears that your method can be replaced by a simple two-dimensional array.

// Use actual sizes in the declaration below
static string FormattedSize[2][2] = {
    {"small", "s"}
,   {"medium", "m" }
//  and so on...
};

string GetSize(int size, enum format) {
    return FormattedSize[size][format];
}