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“Most important, it reads from top to bottom, by which I mean that
each step follows from the preceding step, and the code stops as soon as it
knows the answer. It tells a simple story:

If you want to find an element of tab->item with name==arg,

• First check that tab points to something.
  
• Then check each element of the pointed-to array, returning if you find a match.
  
• If you didn't find it, it's not there.
  

The old version of the story is extremely roundabout:

If you want to find an element of tab->item with name==arg,

• First, assume its not there.
  
• Then check that tab points somewhere. If so
  
  
  
  • go through the array until you see what you're after.
    
  • When you're done looking, you found a match if and
    only if you didn't go through the whole array.
    
  
  
• Having done all that, inform the caller about what you determined.
  

” source...