Different ways of writing the “if” statement [closed]

Answer 1

Example 2 is without a doubt the least error prone approach. Please see this answer I gave to a similar question for the reason why:

What is the prefered style for single decision and action statements?

Although the Visual Studio default for brace usage is to put braces on a newline (my preferred method), the Framework Design Guidelines book (first edition) by Krzysztof Cwalina and Brad Abrams propose a different convention, example 4, placing the opening brace at the end of a preceding if statement (Page 274). They also state "Avoid omitting braces, even if the language allows it".

Not having the second edition at hand, I couldn't say if these conventions have changed or not.

Answer 2

I prefer #2. Easy readability.

Answer 3

I use version 2.

Answer 4

Single short statements:

if (condition) output = firstChoice;
else doSomethingElse();

Multiple or long statements

if (condition) {
   output = firstChoice;
   ...
} else {
   ...
}

Answer 5

I personally prefer 3. The extra curly braces just add too much unnecessary visual noise and whitespace.

I can somewhat see the reasoning for 2/4 to reduce bugs, but I have personally never had a bug because thinking extra lines were inside an if statement. I do use C# and visual studio so my code always stays pretty well formatted. This could however be a problem if I was a more notepad style programmer.

Answer 6

It is more important to be consistent than to select the best.

These styles have different advantages and drawbacks, but none is as bad as mixing them within a project or even a compilation unit or within a function.

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Ternary operator is the obvious choice for this specific code. For simple single statement if/else's that can't be otherwise expressed, I'd prefer a properly indented case 3:

if (val % 2 == 1)
    output = “Number is odd”;
else
    output = “Number is even”;

I understand the motivation behind "always use braces", but I've personally never been bitten by their omission (OK, once. With a macro.)

From the above styles, I'd pick (2). (4) would be ok if "properly" indented.
(1) I'd attribute to a young developer who hopefully will grow out of "compact code", or someone who can't afford a decent monitor. Still, I'd go with it if it was the local style.