Function that returns address if is passed or msg.sender

Question

I'm implementing an ERC721 contract and I want to execute the following logic.

This is what I want: If the user pass to a method an address, return that address, if not, return the user's address.

I have been playing in Remix and I have this method:

 function showsender(address passsedAdd) public view returns(address) {
     address addToReturn;

     if(passsedAdd==address(0)) {
        addToReturn = msg.sender;
     }
     else {
         addToReturn = passsedAdd;
     }

     return addToReturn;
 }

However, I could not make it work as I want since it looks like in Solidity arguments are NOT optional.

So, running testS... If I pass the arg, example:

console.log(
  await this.contract.showsender(
    '0x14723A09ACff6D2A60DcdF7aA4AFf308FDDC160C'
  )
);

Works, but if I try that, in case the user is not explicitly passing an argument, it doesn´t: this.contract.showsender();

I'm totally new to Solidity. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

You can define a function without address:

function showSender() public view returns (address)
{
     return(msg.sender);
 }

AND A SECOND FUNCTION WITH THE SAME NAME with address

 function showSender(address passedAddress) public view returns (address)
  {
     return(passedAddress);
   }

They can be at the same time in the same contract without problems or interference. Like this:

contract MyContract {

function showSender() public view returns (address)
{
     return(msg.sender);
 }


 function showSender(address passedAddress) public view returns (address)
  {
     return(passedAddress);
   }

}

When your user is calling MyContract.showSender without arguments he hits the first, with address passed he hits the second.

Remain to understand how to generate such calls with/without address passed, but this is another story... 😉

Answer 2

As Shane said, function parameters aren't optional although there is overloading you might consider if the following doesn't suit your use-case.

You could do it like this:

function showSender(address passedAddr) public view returns(address) {
  if(passedAddr == address(0) return msg.sender;
  return passedAddr;
}

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

if user don't passed any address while calling your solidity function, web3/ether js/py will give Error: invalid address. there is no optional parameters in solidity. means user have to pass it.

Answer 4

Solidity does not have optional parameters, so the user would have to explicitly pass in 0x00... to trigger addToReturn = msg.sender;. I am not sure this is what you were thinking.

You code should work, but can be optimized. Try the following:

 function showsender(address passsedAdd) public view returns(address) {

     if(passsedAdd==msg.sender) {
        return msg.sender
     }

     return passsedAdd;
 }