that is incase it gets past from the pointer source and it's empty.
but you are correct, that is kind of over kill...
I don't recall seeing that code, where did you find that cause that is inefficient ?
EDIT:
oh, I see, its in types...
bad code indeed...
Edit2:
actually come to think about it, its actually most likely faster code but really, the assignment test should not be there and it could be inlined too.