[newbie] refactor function?

[Kostis Sagonas]

Bengt Kleberg wrote:
 > Gaspar Chilingarov wrote:
 > ...deleted
 > > one question to clarify thing -- when i have function, which splits list 
 > > to head and tail, i always need to have separate clause for empty list 
 > > case, am i ?
 > 
 > yes, if it is ok to get an empty list as an argument.
 > if you know/expect/mandate that the argument list should always have a 
 > head and a tail you do not need a clause for the empty list.

The correct answer is that in _most_ cases you do need a clause for the
empty list and one for the [H|T] one, but in general it really depends
on what you want to do. For example, think of how you would write a function
that returns the last element of a list (i.e., the lists:last/1 function).

Kostis.