Writing Better C# Code - If Statements

A very important part of being a good programmer is writing concise and clean code. There are many ways that we can eliminate unnecessary code so I will be writing a few articles about how to write better code, but I will start with the humble “If Statement”.

I think a lot of developers zero in on Objects and Classes in C# because it is an Object Orientated development language, and they don’t bother getting to really know the If Statement. This is a real shame as I consider Conditional Logic to be one of the fundamental building blocks of any application.

Setting a Boolean value

Take a look at this code;

 if (WebUtil.isDebug == true)  
 {  
   btnMerge.Visible = true;  
 }  
 else  
 {  
   btnMerge.Visible = false;  
 }  

When setting a Boolean value based on the value of another Boolean, you don’t need to use the full If Statement. You can use the following shorthand to get the same result;

btnMerge.Visible = (WebUtil.isDebug);

Obviously, if the Boolean values are opposite, you can just use the ! operator as follows;

btnMerge.Visible = (!WebUtil.isDebug);

You can set your Boolean in this way with any If Statement because If Statements always resolve to either true or false;

btnMerge.Visible = ((x<=2)||(y>=6));

Nested If Statements

When you write an If Statement inside another If Statement, it’s called a nested If Statement. There are very few instances that this is actually required and it makes your code unnecessarily bloated and hard to read.

If you spend some time learning to use your C# Operators and apply yourself to the logic you will be amazed how much unnecessary code you can eliminate.

Here is an example of unnecessary nested If Statements. In the following chunk of Conditional Logic only employees can login impersonating end users. When somebody logs in, the app will send a notification only if they are not in the new Database and not impersonating another user and the notification has not already been sent;

 if (Employee)  
 {  
   if (AsSelf)//Employee logging in as self  
   {  
     if (!obj.InNewDB())   
     {  
       if (obj.CheckforSendNotify())   
       {  
         NewDBNotify(loginID);  
       }  
     }  
   }  
   else  
   {  
     //Don’t notify because Employee impersonating user  
   }  
 }  
 else // notify because it’s an end user  
 {  
   if (!obj.InNewDB())   
   {  
     if (obj.CheckforSendNotify())   
     {  
       NewDBNotify(loginID);  
     }   
   }   
 }  

When written properly, that chunk of code becomes;

 if ((Employee && AsSelf) || (!Employee))  
 {  
   if ((!obj.InNewDB()) && (obj.CheckforSendNotify()))  
   {  
     NewDBNotify(loginID);  
   }  
 }  

Setting a default for a null-able value

You can use the ?? operator to set a default for a null-able value or reference. Don’t worry if that didn’t make sense, just keep reading and it should become clear to you.

In the code below, btnMerge.Visible will get it’s TRUE or FALSE value from MyObject.Boolfield, but if MyObject.Boolfield is NULL, btnMerge.Visible will default to FALSE;

 btnMerge.Visible = MyObject.Boolfield ?? false;  

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by leaving a comment. Even if you disagree with anything I have said here, I value your feedback.