From True and False to Yes and No
I’m writing some code to turn the contents of class modules into an XML file for Affordable Care Act compliance purposes. The XML file spec says that my flag for whether the dependent is a spouse is “Y” or “N”. In my class, I have a Relation property that can be “Son”, “Daughter”, or “Spouse”. I made a new property to return the “Y” or “N”.
If Me.Relation = "Spouse" Then
IsSpouseXML = "Y"
Else
IsSpouseXML = "N"
End If
End Property
I hate writing all those lines to convert a Boolean into something else. I know it’s not that big of a deal, but it just bugs me. So I fixed it.
IsSpouseXML = Split("N Y")(Abs(Me.Relation = "Spouse"))
End Property
Now that’s fancy. The comparison is made and the True or False is converted to a Long via the Abs() function (to turn True to 1 instead of -1) and the proper element of the array is selected. It’s still not good enough.
IsSpouse = Me.Relation = "Spouse"
End Property
Public Property Get IsSpouseXML() As String
IsSpouseXML = Split("N Y")(Abs(Me.IsSpouse))
End Property
Yeah, that’s better. But it’s so specific to spouses. Spouse is a dependent that gets special attention, so I don’t mind having a dedicated property to it. It’s appropriate for the domain, I think. But if I wanted to really generalize the hell out of it, I might make an IsRelation property and then take my conversion property into a function.
IsRelation = Me.Relation = sRelation
End Property
Public Function ConvertBool(bValue As Boolean, vArr As Variant) As String
ConvertBool = vArr(Abs(bValue))
End Function
Now I can have complete customization of the return string.
Dim clsDep As CDependent
For Each clsDep In gclsEmployees.Employee(4).Dependents
Debug.Print ConvertBool(clsDep.IsRelation("Spouse"), Array("Not so much", "Of course")), clsDep.Relation
Next clsDep
End Sub
