How to split up complex conditions and keep short circuit evaluation?

Question

Sometimes conditions can become quite complex, so for readability I usually split them up and give each component a meaningful name. This defeats short-circuit evaluation ho

Answer 1

Split it out into a separate function (to improve readability in main()) and add a comment (so people understand what you are trying to accomplish)

public static void main(String[] args) {
    if (argumentsAreValid(args)) {
            System.out.println("Args are ok");
    }
}


public static boolean argumentsAreValid(String[] args) {
    // Must have 2 arguments (and the second can't be the same as the first)
    return args == null || args.length == 2 || !args[0].equals(args[1]);
}

ETA: I also like Itay's idea of using early returns in the ArgumentsAreValid function to improve the readability.