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\n

Repost of https://dev.to/rhuzaifa/2-simple-tips-to-clean-nested-if-else-conditions-2kn4

\n
\n

There might be a time when you have your if/else conditions like this

\n
if(age>0){\n\tif(age < 18){\n\t\treturn \"Not an Adult\"\n\t}\n\telse if (age >= 18 && age<60){\n\t\treturn \"An Adult\"\n\t}\n\telse{\n\t\treturn \"Senior Citizen\"\n\t}\n}\nelse{\n\treturn \"Age must be a valid number\"\n}
\n

This is however a simple example, this can get messy as your code logic gets complex.

\n

To add more, Multiple nested if/else increases Cyclomatic complexity and it is better to avoid it whenever possible.

\n
\n

Cyclomatic complexity is a software metric used to indicate the complexity of a program. It is a quantitative measure of the number of linearly independent paths through a program’s source code. Thomas J. McCabe, Sr.

\n
\n

So what can you do to avoid it? Simple, Try to have fewer branches of if/else conditions achievable with the following tips.

\n

The Tips

\n
    \n
  1. Guard Clauses
    2. \n
  2. Ternary Operators
    3. \n
\n

There are others like Switch Statement, Dictionaries, Jump Tables, etc. but those are beyond this article’s scope.

\n

1. Guard Clauses

\n

In simple terms, return early if a condition is not met. Again taking our previous code, we can modify it like this

\n
// Guard clause\nif(age <= 0){\n\treturn \"Age must be a valid number\" \n}\n\nif(age < 18){\n\treturn \"Not an Adult\"\n}\nelse if (age < 60){\n\treturn \"An Adult\"\n}\n\nreturn \"Senior Citizen\"
\n

Or you could even do this

\n
// Guard clause\nif(age <= 0) return \"Age must be a valid number\"\n\nif (age < 18) return \"Not an Adult\"\nelse if (age < 60)\treturn \"An Adult\"\nelse return \"Senior Citizen\"
\n

Use brackets or not, scoped only to clean code.

\n

2. Ternary Operators

\n

Most of you already use them, but anyways. Modifying our last code

\n
if(age <= 0) return \"Age must be a valid number\"\n\nvar res = (age < 18 ? \"Not an Adult\" \n\t\t: (age < 60) ? \"An Adult\" \n\t\t: \"Senior Citizen\")\n\nreturn res
\n

or

\n
if(age <= 0) return \"Age must be a valid number\"\n\nreturn (age < 18 ? \"Not an Adult\" : (age < 60) ? \"An Adult\" : \"Senior Citizen\")
\n
\n

Disclaimer: Clean code doesn’t always mean Performant code or Simple Code. Sometimes you have to decide between one or the other. There is however a limit to how clean you can make your code.

\n
\n

So here it is guys, do you use any other method to clean nesting? Be sure to tell me in the comments.

","frontmatter":{"title":"2 Simple Tips To Clean Nested IF/ELSE Conditions.","date":"March 30, 2021","description":"Make sure your conditional logic is readable"}}},"pageContext":{"slug":"/blog/2-simple-tips-to-clean-nested-if-else-conditions/","previous":{"fields":{"slug":"/blog/explained-open-close-principle-in-2-minutes/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Explained: OPEN/CLOSE Principle In 2 Minutes"}},"next":{"fields":{"slug":"/blog/is-it-practical-to-use-interface-segregation-principle/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Is It Practical To Use Interface Segregation Principle?"}}}},"staticQueryHashes":["2276319502"]}