How to write Comparison

Matej Kuna aka Maťok 3 August 2017

I really often see code or variations of this:

if ($expirationDate == null) {
  // do something
}

What I hate about this: It will do something if $expirationDate is zero or $expirationDate is empty array or $expirationDate is empty string. The million dollar question: Is this what developer want? If yes, than fucking stop write you code like an idiot and do it correctly:

if (empty($expirationDate)) {
  // do something
}

In case you want really handle only one of empty values that use a === fucking strick comparison

if (null === $expirationDate) {
  // do something
}

I consider as good practice to use yoda conditions because it's Symfony coding standard and also I don't remeber when I write assignment by accident - but this out of this article topic.

Conclusion

Loose comparison is always double take and unnecessary overhead if I must analyze all code around to figure out what author really want. Try to avoid it and use strict comparison or empty function.