Function Call Side Effects

Consider the following code:

class Foo
  fun fn(x: U64) => None

actor Main
  new create(env: Env) =>
    var x: U64 = 0
    try foo()?.fn(x = 42) end
    env.out.print(x.string())

  fun foo(): Foo ? => error

What do you think it will print? Probably 0 right? Or maybe you realized this code is in the gotchas section so it must be 42. If you went with 42, you’d be right. Why?

Expressions for arguments in function calls are evaluated before the expression for the function receiver. The use of assignment expressions like x = 42 is quite rare so we don’t think many folks will be bitten by this. However, it’s definitely something you want to be aware of. Also remember that if fn were to be called, it would be called with 0 (the result of the assignment expression).