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Android Build an Interactive Story App (Retired) Intents and Multiple Activities Getting Data from an Intent

Steven Strouble
Steven Strouble
4,128 Points
Posted by Steven Strouble
Steven Strouble
4,128 Points

Why is -1 required?

Is it just an arbitrary int so that the methods' number of arguments match?

1 Answer

Nicolas Hampton
Nicolas Hampton
44,638 Points

Steven,

We're using -1 here so if it returns, we know something is wrong. To that effect, there is no point in specifically -1 except for it's a value we know the fuel level can't be. In that way, if we get output saying that the fuel level is -1, which is physically impossible, we'd instantly know something went wrong, and have an idea as to where to start looking. The default value could be set to three, but that would seem normal, except when things started to act funny, and then the problem would be much harder to find. So basically, because a -1 fuel level is SO ABSURD as to be easy to find in debugging. At the same time, it looks kind of manufactured, and differentiates itself from -3576, so we can reasonably rule out some sort of loop error. I think this might pop up as a convention a lot, the simple -1 default. That make any since?

Nicolas