About Question enthuware.ocpjp.v7.2.1362 :

[Kostik]

Hi all!
Here us a question which asks about appropriate usage of assertions.
There are 5 answers, three of them shows how assertions are used (source code provided, assertions are used in public methods) and 4th and 5th:
4) none of the above is appropriate.
5) all of the above are appropriate.

Software says, that correct answer is 5, but I would suppose that 4, because sources provided public methods and it is not good practice to use assertions in public methods.

[admin]

Software says, that correct answer is 5, but I would suppose that 4, because sources provided public methods and it is not good practice to use assertions in public methods.

That is not correct. The rule is that assertions should not be use to check input parameters of public methods.

HTH,
Paul.

[RobynBackhouse]

In answer 2:

Code: Select all

int code = getCode(); // always returns 0      
if (code == 0) {
// deal with 0 ... 
} else {
assert code != 0 : "Can't process because code is out of range -"+code;       
}

The if checks that the value of code is equal to zero, and processes it if it is, and the else - asserts true if the value is not zero.. So the assertion only fails if the value actually IS zero, but we have already processed that value as being the correct one we want.
If the value of code is for example 4, then the assertion returns true, so does not throw the assertionError.

Code: Select all

assert code != 0   //returns true with value which is not zero. e.g. 4

I would have thought that in this case an APPROPRIATE use of an assertion, which is what the question asks, would be

Code: Select all

assert code == 0  //this assertion would fail with any value other than zero

Surely that would be the appropriate use in this case?

[renatumb]

I think so, It should be

Code: Select all

assert code == 0

[admin]

You are right it should be ==.
It is explained very nicely here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/te ... ssert.html

Internal Invariants
Before assertions were available, many programmers used comments to indicate their assumptions concerning a program's behavior. For example, you might have written something like this to explain your assumption about an else clause in a multiway if-statement:

if (i % 3 == 0) {
...
} else if (i % 3 == 1) {
...
} else { // We know (i % 3 == 2)
...
}
You should now use an assertion whenever you would have written a comment that asserts an invariant. For example, you should rewrite the previous if-statement like this:

if (i % 3 == 0) {
...
} else if (i % 3 == 1) {
...
} else {
assert i % 3 == 2 : i;
...
}

This has now been fixed. Thank you for your feedback!
Paul.