If vs Switch

If vs Switch #

As we start learning any programming language if is the first conditional construct that we encounter. The construct may be expresssion or a statement, either way, it is an stepping stone towards the higher power. Often, we get a choice between if and switch and code reviwers would not likely agree with the choice.

During my code review I consider the below to decide,

  • More than 3 if/else condition should be a switch
  • The expression evaluated has more than 1 condition
  • if in case of OR & AND conditions in evaluation

There are alternatives to if and switch that are expressive and elegant.

Ternary operator #

Ternary operator is elegant for simple if else conditions. However, some languages to not support them and some has different syntax.

$ (condition) ? <value to be returned if true> :  <value to be returned if false>

This (Tweet)[https://twitter.com/SimonHoiberg/status/1337688868527726593] response has few notable options available in Javascript.