Code Smell 145 - Short Circuit Hack

Don't use boolean evaluation as a readability shortcut

TL;DR: Don't use Boolean comparison for side effect functions.

Problems

• Readability




• Side Effects

Solutions

1. Convert short circuit into IFs

Context

Smart programmers like to write hacky and obscure code even when there is no strong evidence for this improvement.

Premature optimization always hurts readability.

Sample Code

Wrong

userIsValid() && logUserIn();

// this expression is short circuit
// Does not value second statament
// Unless the first one is true

functionDefinedOrNot && functionDefinedOrNot(); …

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