Is shortcircuit evaluation a good practice to replace if statements that seem trivial?

FranAcuna 0
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Let's say for example that you have a code that checks if a "boolean" flag is true to run some procedure, like this:

if( my_flag ){
 doStuff();
}

I could write it using a short-circuit evaluation, this is taking in account that the result from the evaluation has no value to the rest of the code, it could be written like:

my_flag && doStuff();

I have seen professional code written like this, from my perspective it improves readability removing innecesary syntax, but I have no idea if this is a good practice or not because I have also seen a lot of code written using the if statement.

I would like to know if theres something that I'm not taking in account or arguments against its use in trivial cases.

c
1 Answers

Is shortcircuit evaluation a good practice to replace if statements that seem trivial?

  • Not an option when doStuff(); returns void.

  • Obliges doStuff(); to return a value now and in the future.

When competing options exist, code for maintenance and clarity.

Winner here:

if (my_flag) {
  doStuff();
}

If the if statement is short, optionally omit the braces

if (my_flag)
  doStuff();
chux - Reinstate Monica0
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