Emphasize negation

Question

I was just writing an if statement with fairly long property names and came occross this problem.

Let say we have an if statement like this:

if(_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.AnotherPropertyINeedToCheck == someValue &&
   !_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.ThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant)
{
    //Do something
}

The second property is of a boolean type and it makes no sense to have the stetement like

if(boleanValue == true)

Is there a better way to emphasize the negation then to put the ! in front. To me it seems like this can easily be overseen when reading the code and may potentialy cause problems with debuging

...or assign the negated value to a variable with a meaningful name and use it in the if condition instead. — scrwtp, Jan 21 '13 at 11:22
+1 what @JoachimSauer said, if possible put that method on the object that is being queried.. In this case the whole condition could be encapsulated with a method on _someViewModelNameThatIsLong — MattDavey, Jan 21 '13 at 11:51
A general thing I often do is to surround the negation with a space on each side to make it more visible. if( ! something) vs if(!something) — Svish, Jan 21 '13 at 14:44
If you're emphasizing negation, why not use ... && model.Prop == false)? Personally I very rarely use !, it's too easy to overlook. — , Jan 21 '13 at 17:49

pdr · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-21T12:08:52.167

22

if(_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.NeedsMeToDoSomething(someValue))
{
    //Do something
}

And then, in the view model object

public bool NeedsMeToDoSomething(string someValue)
{
    return AnotherPropertyINeedToCheck == someValue &&
        !ThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant;
}

(assuming someValue is a string and isn't known by the model object)

This not only emphasises the ! operator, but it makes it more readable generally. Now, in the calling method, I can see one condition, which should be well-named to describe the condition in the context of the calling object. And in the model object, I can see what that means in the context of the model object.

edited Jan 21 '13 at 12:08

answered Jan 21 '13 at 11:37

pdr

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+1, this is a good application of the information expert principle. – MattDavey Jan 21 '13 at 11:53
1

Worth noting, someValue may need to be a parameter to the NeedsMeToDoSomething method, depending on your situation. – MattDavey Jan 21 '13 at 11:55
@MattDavey: Oh, good point. – pdr Jan 21 '13 at 12:06
@pdr Maybe you should make a property to that view model with the same boolean and reuse that flag in more places. I'm sure you will find it handy. – radu florescu Jan 22 '13 at 06:33

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 21 '13 at 11:32

Put it in its own if block prior to evaluating the less important conditions. Not only would it be easier to read without the clutter of the other conditions, but it's also the first condition a programmer will read. Combine this with the idea already mentioned by @scrwtp to assign to a variable with a meaningful name and you get:

var isValid = !_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.ThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant;
if( isValid ) 
{
    if( _someViewModelNameThatIsLong.AnotherPropertyINeedToCheck == someValue ) 
    {
        //Do something
    }
}

If you're programming in a compiler language, most times these nested if blocks get combined in the end anyway, so long as you don't insert code between the outer if and the inner if, so it shouldn't affect performance in these cases.

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 21 '13 at 21:05

2

If you are using C/C++ then the preprocessor could provide readability.

#define NOT !

if(_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.AnotherPropertyINeedToCheck == someValue &&
    NOT _someViewModelNameThatIsLong.ThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant)
{
    //Do something
}

edited Jan 21 '13 at 21:05

Andres F.

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answered Jan 21 '13 at 20:47

CWallach

1,108

or perhaps... function not( x ) { return !x; } // javascript – Alex Jan 21 '13 at 21:06
2

Operators in C and C++ There are already standard synonyms for various operators. – Joel Jan 21 '13 at 21:44

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 21 '13 at 12:27

0

I'd just extract

`!_someViewModelNameThatIsLong.ThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant`

In a Method that returns this. If you name this method NotThisIsABooleanPropertyThatIsImportant you should be fine.

answered Jan 21 '13 at 12:27

mhr

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Emphasize negation

4 Answers4