If-less programming (basically without conditionals) [closed]

by

There are some resources on the Anti-IF Campaign site, such as this article.

I believe it’s a matter of degree. Conditionals aren’t always bad, but they can be (and frequently are) abused.

Additional thoughts (one day later)

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code is a good reference on this subject (and many others). It covers Replace Conditional with Polymorphism. There’s also a new one, Replace Conditional with Visitor, on the web site.

I value simplicity and single responsibility over removing all if statements. These three goals often coincide. Static analysis tools that support the cyclomatic complexity metric can quickly point out code with nested or serial conditionals. The if statements may remain post-refactoring, but could be broken out into smaller methods and/or multiple classes.

Update: Michael Feathers wrote an article on Unconditional Programming.

This is a popular topic: Phil Haack on Death to the IF statement!

More Related Contents:

  1. What is polymorphism, what is it for, and how is it used?
  2. Polymorphism – Define In Just Two Sentences [closed]
  3. Are Polymorphism , Overloading and Overriding similar concepts? [closed]
  4. Interface vs Abstract Class (general OO)
  5. Interface vs Base class
  6. What is Inversion of Control?
  7. Polymorphism vs Overriding vs Overloading
  8. When to use an interface instead of an abstract class and vice versa?
  9. What does “program to interfaces, not implementations” mean?
  10. Method chaining – why is it a good practice, or not?
  11. What is the difference between an Instance and an Object?
  12. Does functional programming replace GoF design patterns?
  13. What is the use of making constructor private in a class?
  14. What is the definition of “interface” in object oriented programming
  15. Is returning null bad design? [closed]
  16. Is polymorphism possible without inheritance?
  17. Why don’t associated types for protocols use generic type syntax in Swift?
  18. What is the scope of the Single Responsibility Principle? [closed]
  19. How much work should be done in a constructor?
  20. When to use mixins and when to use interfaces in Dart?
  21. When should I use static methods in a class and what are the benefits?
  22. What is an example of the Single Responsibility Principle? [closed]
  23. Mediator Vs Observer Object-Oriented Design Patterns
  24. Can’t seem to understand SOLID principles and design patterns [closed]
  25. Why not use instanceof operator in OOP design?
  26. Is it bad practice for a class to have only static fields and methods?
  27. How to create a “single dispatch, object-oriented Class” in julia that behaves like a standard Java Class with public / private fields and methods
  28. What is the difference between Composition and Association relationship?
  29. Is it possible to extend a default method implementation of a trait in a struct?
  30. How does the C++ compiler know which implementation of a virtual function to call?

Leave a Comment