TL;DR More rants from my campaign to rid the world of bad code, one if statement at a time.

IMHO else-if is a code smell, you might disagree, but before you dismiss this as the ramblings of a madman, take a look at the code below.

All righty, here is why…. The problem with else-if,

• You simply don’t need it.
• Once you start adding else-if it can be hard to stop.
• The more you add the worst it gets.
• It leads to the darkside 😀

When it comes to clean code, I try to have just one condition per function, yes that’s right, just one. If you have more than that you need a case or switch statement ( depending on your language ). Or even better a lookup decision table.

But first let’s have a look at the evil that is else-if.

Example One

For the first example it’s simple enough, and I’ve seen plenty of developers do this, the else-if is totally redundant, but you would be surprised at how many people actually still do this.

function for_the_love_of_code_get_that_else_if_out_of_your_head(){
    boolean condition = false;

    // Bad Code, else if is totally redundant
    if (condition) {
        jump();
    } else if (!condition) {
        run();
    }

    // Better, nice and simple, you got it
    if (condition) {
        jump();
    } else {
        run();
    }
}

Example Two

This is just a mess of spagetti, this could be a lot better, I’ve added a new code-smell can you see it. Hint: magic numbers

void just_so_smelly(){
    // Bad Code why I never use if else reason 2
    int value = 1;

    if (value == 1) {
        jump();
    } else if (value == 2) {
        run();
    }

    // Better
    switch (value) {
        case 1:jump();break;
        case 2:run();break;
    }
}