Botched Code

Golden tidbit I found while doing some maintenance:

$count = count($some_array);

if($count)
{
    if($count > 1)
    {
        $val = 'PluralText';
    }
    elseif ($count == 1)
    {
        $val = 'SingularText';
    }
    elseif ($language == 'fr')
    {
        $val = 'PluralText';
    }
    else
    {
        $val = 'SingularText';
    }
}
else
{
   $val = 'None found';
}

could have been just written as

if ( $count = count( $some_array ) )
{
    $val = ( $count > 1 ) ? 'PluralText' : 'SingularText';
}
else
{
    $val = 'None found';
}

The reason in this example, the first section language code would never be reached.

The program would never reach the “$language” if condition. Allowing us to remove that extra code.

Simplifying the code to the point where it’s easily readable. Some may say that ternary statements are cryptic to read. I agree for the most poart. But when setting a simple value… say setting up initial values.

$value =
            (empty($this->getRequestParameter('some_random_parameter'))
       ?
            null
       :
            $this->getRequestParameter('some_random_parameter');

is better then writing

if (!empty($this->getRequestParameter('some_random_parameter'))
{
    $value = $this->getRequestParameter('some_random_parameter');
}
else
{
    $value = null;
}