Flatten Conditional

• Aug 28, 2018
• 2 minutes to read

Purpose

This Refactoring helps you simplify your conditional clauses, and thus increases code readability in the following cases.

• When the nested conditionals can be replaced with the guard clause.
• When a part of conditional is redundant and can be removed.
• When the conditional clause can be replaced by the tested expression (e.g., when a boolean value is assigned or returned within the if block).

Availability

Available when the caret is on an if statement, providing the surrounding code can be simplified.

Usage

1. Place the caret on a suitable if statement.

   NOTE

   The blinking cursor shows the caret's position at which the Refactoring is available.

   C#

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

   VB.NET

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

2. Use the Ctrl + . or Ctrl + ~ shortcut to invoke the Code Actions Menu.
3. Select Flatten Conditional from the menu.

After execution, the Refactoring simplifies the conditional clauses.

C#

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

VB.NET

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