Multilining If statements conditions should be banned. now.

Multilining if statement conditions is bad. I was modifying some code and came across this:

If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_selectedGUID) OrElse _
_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.GetDefaultContractAgreementGuid OrElse _
_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.DefaultPermAgreementGuid Then

	fgFeeAgreements.SetCellCheck(rowAdded, 0, CheckEnum.Checked)
	_selectedTitle = ag.Title
	_lastIndexRowSelected = rowAdded

End If

Which at a glance looks like this:

Single Line If Variable Assignment Variable Assignment

One person suggested that if someone had to do multiline the condition they could at least indent it. That’s not much good either though:

If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_selectedGUID) OrElse _
	_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.GetDefaultContractAgreementGuid OrElse _
	_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.DefaultPermAgreementGuid Then

	fgFeeAgreements.SetCellCheck(rowAdded, 0, CheckEnum.Checked)
	_selectedTitle = ag.Title
	_lastIndexRowSelected = rowAdded

End If

Looks like this:

If Condition Then Variable Assignment Variable Assignment

You could one line the whole thing, which while I think is better than multi line conditionals, still isn’t great as I cant see all of it on a normal sized screen (read “work supplied screen”).

If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_selectedGUID) OrElse _selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.GetDefaultContractAgreementGuid OrElse _selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.DefaultPermAgreementGuid Then

	fgFeeAgreements.SetCellCheck(rowAdded, 0, CheckEnum.Checked)
	_selectedTitle = ag.Title
	_lastIndexRowSelected = rowAdded

End If

So, Why not just do it as suggested in Code Complete, which fits on my screen and explains the comparisons:

Dim isContract = (_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.GetDefaultContractAgreementGuid)
Dim isPerm = (_selectedGUID = FeeAgreement.DefaultPermAgreementGuid)

If String.IsNullOrEmpty(_selectedGUID) OrElse isContract OrElse isPerm Then

	fgFeeAgreements.SetCellCheck(rowAdded, 0, CheckEnum.Checked)
	_selectedTitle = ag.Title
	_lastIndexRowSelected = rowAdded

End If

I don’t know who wrote the above original code, and I don’t much care either. I do however think that the people who like the original style are clinically insane…and I work with at least one like this!

Some unit tests wouldn’t go amiss either. Well, tests of any kind would be a good start…