Pattern: Unnecessary if statement
Issue: -
Checks for unnecessary if statements. The entire if statement, or at least the if or else block, are considered unnecessary for the four scenarios described below.
(1) When the if and else blocks contain only an explicit return of true and false constants. These cases can be replaced by a simple return statement. Examples of violations include:
if (someExpression) // can be replaced by: return someExpression
return true
else
return false
if (someExpression) { // can be replaced by: return !someExpression
return false
} else {
return true
}
if (someExpression) { // can be replaced by: return someExpression
return Boolean.TRUE
} else {
return Boolean.FALSE
}(2) When the if statement is the last statement in a block and the if and else blocks are only true and false expressions. This is an implicit return of true/false. For example, the if statement in the following code can be replaced by someExpression or someExpression as boolean:
def someMethod() {
doSomething()
if (someExpression)
true
else false
}(3) When the second-to-last statement in a block is an if statement with no else, where the block contains a single return statement, and the last statement in the block is a return statement, and one return statement returns a true expression and the other returns a false expression. This check is disabled by setting checkLastStatementImplicitElse to false. For example, the if statement in the following code can be replaced by return expression1:
def someMethod() {
doSomething()
if (expression1) {
return true
}
return false
}(4) When either the if block or else block of an if statement that is not the last statement in a block contain only a single constant or literal expression. For example, the if statement in the following code has no effect and can be removed:
def someMethod() {
if (someExpression) { 123 }
doSomething()
}