Java By Comparison

Avoid Negations

class Laboratory {

    Microscope microscope;

    Result analyze(Sample sample) {
        if (microscope.isInorganic(sample)) {
            return Result.INORGANIC;
        } else {
            return analyzeOrganic(sample);
        }
    }

    private Result analyzeOrganic(Sample sample) {
        if (!microscope.isHumanoid(sample)) {
            return Result.ALIEN;
        } else {
            return Result.HUMANOID;
        }
    }
}

Has anyone ever told you to “think positively”? Turns out, positive expressions are better in your code than negative ones because they’re often easier to grasp and they take up slightly less space.

The problem code shown here is another variant of the Laboratory component. It provides two methods that take a Sample and return a Result. There’s nothing ...