if statements with conditions that are always false have the effect of making blocks of code non-functional. if
statements with conditions that are always true are completely redundant, and make the code less readable.
There are three possible causes for the presence of such code:
- An if statement was changed during debugging and that debug code has been committed.
- Some value was left unset.
- Some logic is not doing what the programmer thought it did.
In any of these cases, unconditional if statements should be removed.
Noncompliant code example
if true
doSomething()
end
...
if false
doSomethingElse()
end
Compliant solution
doSomething()
...
