A EVALUATE and a chain of IF/ELSE IF statements is evaluated from top to bottom. At most, only one branch
will be executed: the first one with a condition that evaluates to true.
Therefore, duplicating a condition automatically leads to dead code. Usually, this is due to a copy/paste error. At best, it’s simply dead code and
at worst, it’s a bug that is likely to induce further bugs as the code is maintained, and obviously it could lead to unexpected behavior.
Noncompliant code example
EVALUATE X
WHEN 1
...
WHEN 5
...
WHEN 3
...
WHEN 1 *> Noncompliant
...
END-EVALUATE.
IF X = 1
...
ELSE
IF X = 2
...
ELSE
IF X = 1 *> Noncompliant
...
END-IF
END-IF
END-IF.
Compliant solution
EVALUATE X
WHEN 1
...
WHEN 5
...
WHEN 3
...
END-EVALUATE.
IF X = 1
...
ELSE
IF X = 2
...
ELSE
IF X = 3
...
END-IF
END-IF
END-IF.
