Replace Nested Conditional With Guard Clauses

1 minute read

I couldn’t remember who said that one of his favorite refactoring techniques is Replace Nested Conditional with Guard Clauses. When I looked into it, it did put a smile on my face despite its simplicity.

This is NOT about coding aesthetics, this is all about clarity.

A method has conditional behavior that does not make clear the normal path of execution.

Use guard clauses for all the special cases.

double getPayAmount() {
  double result;
  if (isDead) {
    result = deadAmount();
  } else if (isSeparated) {
    result = separatedAmount();
  } else if (isRetired) {
    result = retiredAmount();
  } else {
    result = normalPayment();
  }
}
double getPayAmount() {
  if (isDead) return deadAmount();
  if (isSeparated) return separatedAmount(); 
  if (isRetired) return retiredAmount();
  
  return normalPayment();
  
}

So much better!

comments powered by Disqus