[RESOLVED] No value on all code paths

[graham23s]

Hi Guys,

In more and more of my functions (althought they still work) i'm getting a warning the function doesn't return a value on all code paths.

for example:

Function functionLoadHiddenFields(ByVal fileLocation As String, ByVal Y As Integer)
 
        '// Check if the file exists
        If File.Exists(fileLocation) Then
 
            '// Load the xml document
            Dim XMLDoc As New Xml.XmlDocument
 
            '// Find and load the XML file
            XMLDoc.Load(fileLocation)
 
            '// Tell where to look for the data we need
            Dim XMLItem As Xml.XmlNode = XMLDoc.SelectSingleNode("hiddenFields/hiddenValues")
 
            'MessageBox.Show((XMLItem.Attributes("hiddenFieldsID" & (Y)).InnerText))
            Return XMLItem.Attributes("hiddenFieldsID" & (Y)).InnerText
 
        End If
 
    End Function

if i put in the return false it wouldn't show the message, is it basically a way of saying:

if expression true do this, return true, else return false

i know in PHPO for example i can just return either true, or a value.

thanks for any info guys

Graham

[Bulldog]

If the "IF" evaluates false then the sub does not return anything.

You're also missing the type of what you're returning;

Function functionLoadHiddenFields(ByVal fileLocation As String, ByVal Y As Integer) As String

So you might want to do something like;

If Whatever
Return TheValue
Else
Return String.Empty
End If

Although I'd be inclined to return the state of whether the file was found and pass the acquired value back as a parameter.

[NickThissen]

I'm not sure what PHPO is, but in VB you cannot return True, OR a value. You can return a Boolean (which is True or False), or any other type (Integer, String, your custom class, etc), but you cannot really mix them up.

The error is because the function does not return anything when the If statement is false. You could simply add an Else statement, and return something appropriate there. For example, you could return an empty string. If that's appropriate in your situation depends on what your situation is. If the Innertext could return an empty string, and if that would be perfectly valid, then that gets dangerous, because you cannot distinguish between an empty string due to the If statement being false, and an empty string that is valid.

[graham23s]

Hi Guys,

Sorry that was a type, it was meant to be PHP lol

That was probably a bad example to show i am still deciding what if anything i'm doing with that function lol, i understand what i'm doing now

thanks for the input guys

Graham