Why "Avoid inline conditionals"?

[Anonymous]

I've recently started using Checkstyle set to use the Sun Coding standards. However, one of the messages I'm receiving is as follows:

- Avoid inline conditionals.

It is reporting it on the following line:

return recInt != null ? recInt.intValue() : 0;

All this does is return an int from an ArrayList where Integer was used to store the int in the List.

I thought the line of code was an easy way to check for a null object. Could someone explain what the significance of "Avoid inline conditionals" is and how I should update my line of code, if its deemed to be not to standard?

Cheers,
Matt.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Well, of course you could write

 if (recInt != null)
   return recInt.intValue();
 else
   return 0;

That's the problem with automated style checkers: either you surrender to their recommendations, or you learn to live with ignoring some of the warnings.

I don't know about this particular checker, but it's possible that this form would make it complain about multiple return statements (another very dubious criticism, in my view.) Then you'd have to write

 int result = 0;
 if (recInt != null)
   result = recInt.intValue();
 return result;

to shut that one up, too!

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

The reason for avoiding inline conditionals is to minimize confusing code. As Ernest points out, it isn't confusing in this case.

[Ilja Preuss]

The only thing coming to my mind that could improve the code is removing the need for the null check at all - for example by applying the Null Object pattern.

But I use inline conditionals all the time - they often make the code much clearer, if used wisely. I'd advise to disable this specific check, it's silly.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. I'll switch off the setting for this particular check. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

I like the Null Object Pattern, but for this piece of code I think it would be overkill to implement it.

Cheers,
Matt.