Frequently you will see following type of code in your code base.
if(result != 1)
{
if(someOtherResult == 101)
{
if(anotherValue == 500)
{
// do something
}
}
else
{
// do some other thing
}
}
return;
Here the code forms a shape of an arrow-head, as below:
if
if
if
if
do something
end
end
end
end
If you see, the main logic is deep down into the nested condition, it increases the cyclomatic complexity of the code.
A better version of the same code could be as below:
if(result == 1)
{
return;
}
if(someOtherResult == 101 && anotherValue == 500)
{
// do something
return;
}
// do some other thing
return;
The above code does a number of things to flatten the code and make it better:
- Validations are performed first and it returns at the first opportunity.
- Multiple nested conditions are combine into one (with “&&”(logical And) operator. If there are multiple expressions forming one such condition, they can be moved to a separate method returning boolean. That method can then be use in the if condition as below:
if(IsValidResult(someOtherResult, anotherResult)
{
// do something
return;
}
bool IsValidResult(int someOtherResult, int anotherResult)
{
if(someOtherResult == 101 && anotherValue == 500)
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
Tags: C#, design principles, AntiPatterns