Question

I’m wondering whether it’s considered okay to do something like this.

if ( p_Pointer != NULL ) {
  return p_Pointer;
} else {
  return NULL;
}

Without the else, whatever. The point is that if the pointer is null, NULL is going to be returned, so it would seem pointless wasting a step on this. However, it seems useful for debugging purposes, because if I was stepping through with a debugger I would be able to check with this test if the pointer is NULL or not.

Any comments or suggestions regarding this practice?

Answer 1

It’s “okay” to do this, i.e. there’s nothing wrong with it, although it’s not very useful. If you’re stepping through in a debugger, you should be able to display the value of p_Pointer anyway.

It’s similar to

if( flag == TRUE ) {
    return TRUE;
} else {
    return FALSE;
}

rather than just return flag;