Further to trippledubs's reply (update: and choroba's reply):   DarrenSol: You say, in effect, "I wrote some code and then wrote another version of that code. Both versions seem to work. Please tell me which version is to be preferred and why, but I'm not going to show you either version! Many thanks in advance."

IMHO, what you need to do is provide us with two (or more!) small, self-contained, compilable and executable code examples that we can all ponder and discuss. We may then be able to provide you with advice for which you can thank us!