Nested Method Calls

When and when not to use nested method calls. I am just starting out in Java and I have heard different things on nesting method calls.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.
Code This:

Or something like this

or some other combination

Thanks

Never heard that called "nested". I'd have used the term "chained".

The criteria I'd use is to balance the two following considerations:

Are the intermediate variables needed?

Which approach provides the best clarity?

Note that there will be no difference in performance or behavior. It is simply a matter of what's easiest to write and read, and, as Bear points out, whether you need the results of one call for more than just the immediate use as an argument to another call.

Bear Bibeault wrote:Never heard that called "nested". I'd have used the term "chained".

To me, chained is where nested would be

Jeff Verdegan wrote:Note that there will be no difference in performance or behavior. It is simply a matter of what's easiest to write and read, and, as Bear points out, whether you need the results of one call for more than just the immediate use as an argument to another call.

In this case the intermediate results are not needed. That is actually my question, readability. I prefer the condensed version, where my mentor suggests to always break it out. With that I wanted to ask the community what they fell is easier to read. I could code this either way. Right now I am just trying to avoid a potentially bad habit.

Adam Jelinek wrote:
That is actually my question, readability. I prefer the condensed version, where my mentor suggests to always break it out.

I'll sometimes nest it one level deep, if the names are short enough, like but for the specific example in your original post, I would absolutely use varaibles.

Jeff Verdegan wrote:

Adam Jelinek wrote:
That is actually my question, readability. I prefer the condensed version, where my mentor suggests to always break it out.

I'll sometimes nest it one level deep, if the names are short enough, like a.setX(b.getX()) but for the specific example in your original post, I would absolutely use varaibles.

Thanks for the help!

Adam Jelinek wrote:That is actually my question, readability. I prefer the condensed version, where my mentor suggests to always break it out. With that I wanted to ask the community what they fell is easier to read.

In my opinion your second example is much more readable. However your first example could be made readable with a bit of white space:

And I certainly wouldn't go along with the advice "always break it out". Consider this example:

I wouldn't change it to this to improve clarity:

There's never one approach that always "the best". That's where judgement comes in.

And sometimes, it's just a matter of formatting. Consider the difference between:

and

To me, the overriding criteria is clarity.

One thing you always want to avoid is "clever" (unless being clever achieves greater clarity).

Bear Bibeault wrote:There's never one approach that always "the best". That's where judgement comes in.

To me, the overriding criteria is clarity.

One thing you always want to avoid is "clever" (unless being clever achieves greater clarity).

Very well put. Thank you to everyone for your help.