[erlang-questions] Function clause question

[Ulf Wiger]

It's basically a matter of taste, but in your specific example,
there is also a semantic difference:

[_H | _T] matches only if the list is non-empty, whereas

   (Arg, Bin) when is_list(Arg)

also matches empty lists.

<<Arg/binary>> does match the empty binary, though.

BR,
Ulf W

2008/12/26 Camille Troillard <tuscland@REDACTED>:
> Dear list,
> I have a simple best practices question:
> Is it better to write:
>
> skip ([_H | _T] = Arg, Bin) ->
>     skip_count (length (Arg) + 1, Bin);
> skip (<<Arg/binary>>, Bin) ->
>     skip_count (size (Arg), Bin).
> or
> skip (Arg, Bin) when is_list (Arg) ->
>     skip_count (length (Arg) + 1, Bin);
> skip (Arg, Bin) when is_binary (Arg) ->
>     skip_count (size (Arg), Bin).
> I would be in favor or the second case, but I wonder if the use of guards in
> this case is a very good idea.
>
> Best,
> Cam
>
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