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Discussion on: Write better code and be a better programmer by NEVER USING ELSE statements

 
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Douglas Parsons

I think it depends on the properties/methods you have. I agree with your point that putting 'not' in front of a conditional can require a mental adjustment, but that's usually when you're properties are negative or poorly named.

For example - if I had a something.notOK() method, I wouldn't want to negate this - as !something.notOK() doesn't read very nicely.

That's an extreme example, but it's why naming is super important (especially for booleans).

Another example could be flagging users as inactive - the logical thing to do is to add a boolean property isInactive. This isn't as obviously terrible, but inverting this can be confusing - not isInactive... so active.

I'd argue the code smell there is the names / properties, rather than inverting the if / else statements though.

Great point though <3