Question

I have this piece of code:

private void prepareContent() {
    log.info("do something");
    // success?
    boolean suc = false;
    suc = suc || uncompressToContent("file.tar.gz");
    suc = suc || uncompressToContent("file.tgz");
    for (int i = 0; i <= 9; i++) {
        suc = suc || uncompressToContent("dir/" + i + ".tgz");
        suc = suc || uncompressToContent("dir/" + i + ".tar.gz");
    }
    if (!suc) {
        log.error("unable to do something");
    }
}

The function returns false for “file.tar.gz” and file.tgz”.

The problem is the the call to uncompressToContent(“dir/1.tgz”) returns true and the code stops its execution. The remaining code is not executed.

I’m not sure if this is an error in the compiler. What do you think?

Added: I forgot to mention that I need to execute all the calls to uncompressToContent and check if any returns true, using the fewer instructions as possible.

Answer 1

There is no error in the compiler.

As soon as suc is set to true (i.e. from the first uncompressToContent call) then all of the future expressions will return true without calling uncompressToContent. This is becuase you are using short circuit boolean or (“||”) which do not evaluate the second argument if the first argument is true.

If you want all the calls to be made, use the normal or operator (“|”) instead.