Combining logical statements onto 1 line in C#?

Question

A simple question as to whether or not this would be a proper way to combine logical statements for readability and organization purposes.

The 'standard' way I was taught to write code:

txtbox_vendor.Visible = false;
txtbox_vendor.Enabled = false;
txtbox_vendorCity.Visible = false;
txtbox_vendorCity.Enabled = false;
txtbox_vendorState.Visible = false;
txtbox_vendorState.Enabled = false;

Now obviously if I have a huge amount of textboxes or any objects that are being being switched on and off, would it be better to write it like this:

txtbox_vendor.Visible = false; txtbox_vendor.Enabled = false;
txtbox_vendorCity.Visible = false; txtbox_vendorCity.Enabled = false;
txtbox_vendorState.Visible = false; txtbox_vendorState.Enabled = false;

Obviously, performance isn't going to be an issue.

But is the second option considered a correct way to write code for legibility? Or is it frowned upon?

Generally speaking I tend to have one semicolon per line (unless it's a for loop). One line, one statement. — Matthew, Sep 01 '16 at 19:47
Matthew, this was my thinking as well. It was just a curious thought I had and came across looking at some legacy code. — Gary.Taylor717, Sep 01 '16 at 19:49
Another option to increase legibility may be to create a method that accepts a textbox and sets the .Visible and .Enabled property in it. — Matthew, Sep 01 '16 at 19:49
Possible duplicate of How would you know if you've written readable and easily maintainable code? — gnat, Sep 01 '16 at 19:57

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 01 '16 at 20:39

8

Groups of things that are the same can be placed in an array/collection and iterated over to avoid large amounts of identical-seeming code.

var textboxes = new[] {txtbox_vendor, txtbox_vendorCity, txtbox_vendorState};
foreach (var textbox in textboxes)
{
    textbox.Enabled = false;
    textbox.Visible = false;
}

In this way you might avoid the temptation to save space by placing multiple statements on a single line (which is indeed frowned upon.)

answered Sep 01 '16 at 20:39

Justin T.

97

1

This addresses the OP's example but not his question, which could include lines of code that are not simple assignment or which involve classes that do not share a supertype. – John Wu Sep 02 '16 at 17:48

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:40

The standard is one code statement per line. If a statement is too long, it should be broken across several lines in the file. The reverse is not true.

Why?

Automated code merges rely on one statement per line
Stack traces identify code position by line number; with more than one statement per line, a line number is ambiguous
One statement per line allows easy reading of nesting via indentation
One statement per line is consistent with code that is generated by most code wizards (other than minifiers).
File diff'ing tools such as Beyond Compare are much easier to use with one statement per line

It used to be the following idiom was not common but somewhat acceptable:

txtbox_vendor.Visible = txtbox_vendor.Enabled = txtbox_vendorCity.Visible = false;

Technically this is one statement. This works because the output of the = (assignment) operator is the value being assigned. I find it confusing and it is no longer common or encouraged.

On a side note, if you are coming across a lot of situations where you are even considering using multiple statements per line, as in your example, I have to wonder if your code suffers from other more serious stylistic and structural issues, e.g. a lack of modularity or failure to honor the single responsibility principle.

P.S. You do not need to set Enabled=false if you are setting Visible=false. If you insist on setting both, consider using an extension method to combine them into one call, and therefore one line.

Thank you for the in depth explanation. I wasn't writing the code this way by choice at first, I was simply following the standard a set of legacy code I was working with had. But after reading these answers and doing some investigating, I decided to refactor and change the program structure. SRP really does help and DRY as well. — Gary.Taylor717, Sep 02 '16 at 19:00

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '16 at 12:21

You can still set all properties with only one value and keep the one statement per line rule by doing this:

txtbox_vendor.Visible = 
txtbox_vendor.Enabled =
txtbox_vendorCity.Visible = 
txtbox_vendorCity.Enabled =
txtbox_vendorState.Visible = 
txtbox_vendorState.Enabled = false;

Combining logical statements onto 1 line in C#?

3 Answers3