How do you handle huge if-conditions? *

Question

It's something that's bugged me in every language I've used, I have an if statement but the conditional part has so many checks that I have to split it over multiple lines, use a nested if statement or just accept that it's ugly and move on with my life.

Are there any other methods that you've found that might be of use to me and anybody else that's hit the same problem?

Example, all on one line:

if (var1 = true && var2 = true && var2 = true && var3 = true && var4 = true && var5 = true && var6 = true)
{

Example, multi-line:

if (var1 = true && var2 = true && var2 = true
 && var3 = true && var4 = true && var5 = true
 && var6 = true)
{

Example-nested:

if (var1 = true && var2 = true && var2 = true && var3 = true)
{
     if (var4 = true && var5 = true && var6 = true)
     {

Answer

Separate the condition in several booleans and then use a master boolean as the condition.

bool isOpaque = object.Alpha == 1.0f;
bool isDrawable = object.CanDraw && object.Layer == currentLayer;
bool isHidden = hideList.Find(object);

bool isVisible = isOpaque && isDrawable && ! isHidden;

if(isVisible)
{
    // ...
}

Better yet:

public bool IsVisible {
    get
    {
        bool isOpaque = object.Alpha == 1.0f;
        bool isDrawable = object.CanDraw && object.Layer == currentLayer;
        bool isHidden = hideList.Find(object);

        return isOpaque && isDrawable && ! isHidden;
    }
}

void Draw()
{
     if(IsVisible)
     {
         // ...
     }
}

Make sure you give your variables name that actualy indicate intention rather than function. This will greatly help the developer maintaining your code... it could be YOU!

< br > via < a class="StackLink" href=" http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6126/" >How do you handle huge if-conditions?< /a>

Share on Google Plus

About Cinema Guy

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.