Flatten Conditional

• Oct 11, 2021
• 2 minutes to read

Purpose

This refactoring helps you simplify conditional clauses and increase code readability in the following cases:

• When nested conditionals can be replaced with a guard clause.
• When a part of a conditional expression is redundant and can be removed.
• When a conditional clause can be replaced with a test expression. For example, when a boolean value is assigned or returned inside an if block.

Availability

Available when the caret is in an if statement and the surrounding code can be simplified.

Usage

1. Place the caret in a suitable if statement.

   C#

   public bool MyBinaryOperator(bool a, bool b)
   {
       if (a && !b)
       {
           return true;
       }
       else
       {
           return false;
       }
   }
   

   VB.NET

   Public Function MyBinaryOperator(ByVal a As Boolean, ByVal b As Boolean) As Boolean
       If a AndAlso Not b Then
           Return True
       Else
           Return False
       End If
   End Function
   

2. Press the Ctrl + . or Ctrl + ~ shortcut to invoke the Code Actions menu.

3. Select Flatten Conditional from the menu and press Enter.

   

After execution, this refactoring simplifies the conditional clauses.

C#

public bool MyBinaryOperator(bool a, bool b)
{
    return a && !b;
}

VB.NET

Public Function MyBinaryOperator(ByVal a As Boolean, ByVal b As Boolean) As Boolean
    If a AndAlso Not b Then
        Return True
    End If
    Return False
End Function