anyone ever wish there was a clean way to do `else...

# announcements

[Hullaballoonatic]

anyone ever wish there was a clean way to do else "", else 0, etc?:

return myStr + if (myCondition) myPostfix else ""

return myVal + if (myCondition) myAddition else 0

obviously the nicest syntax would probably simple exclude the else, but that of course does not compile

[karelpeeters]

I'm frustrated every time I have to write if(c) x else "" too!

[David Silva]

Yep,
I’m not really aware of Java APIs anymore, but we could use the ternary operator which some might consider easier to read

return myStr + myCondition ? myPostfix : ""

Anyway, It might help if you move the suffix computation to its own function 🤷‍♂️

return myStr + computeSuffix()
..
private fun computeSuffix() = if (myCondition) mySuffix else ""

[Hullaballoonatic]

i could write a function like

fun String.appendIf(cond: Boolean, postFix: String)

but that's even more wordy in use and less readable

[Alowaniak]

Does myStr + (myPostfix.takeIf { myCondition } ?: "") work?

[Shawn A]

fun <T> Boolean.whenTrue(value: T, otherwise: T): T {
    return if(this) value else otherwise
}

😆

[Shawn A]

Sometimes simplest is best though. I'd scratch my head if someone used that @Alowaniak

[Hullaballoonatic]

yeah, that would work, but it is also equally verbose as an if/else expression while being less readable

[Alowaniak]

Hmyea I guess so
If it were "unless" I kinda feel like it would make sense natural language wise

[Hullaballoonatic]

to be clear, the topic isn't about ternary expressions, it's about "else nothing"

[Luke]

fun String.emptyIf(condition: Boolean) = if (condition) "" else this? So you would have return myStr + myPostfix.emptyIf(condition)

[Hullaballoonatic]

yeah, not a bad idea

i'll probably just write:

fun String.given(condition) = if (condition) this else ""

[Hullaballoonatic]

or for the opposite:

fun String.unless(condition) = if (condition) "" else this

[Hullaballoonatic]

fun String.unless(condition: (String) -> Boolean) = if (condition(this)) "" else this

is nice too

[Luke]

The name does not imply that it is an empty String that is returned though. I was going for something in between `takeIf`/`takeUnless` and orEmpty()

[karelpeeters]

Sometimes if it's part of a bigger string building system you can conditionally append too:

buildString {
    if (cond) append(str)
}

[Hullaballoonatic]

i think the name of the functions are enough context given they're called alongside concatenation or other operations