Question

How would I condense this php method to have less code yet still be readable and functional? What would you change in this code?

public function charCount($string, $max, $min) {

    $stringCount = strlen($string);

    if(isset($max) || isset($min)) {
        //Testing Max Chars
        if($stringCount > $max) {
            return 'String length: ' . $stringCount . "<br />
                    Max Chars: " . $max . "<br />
                    Error: To Long";


        }
        else if($stringCount < $min) {
            return 'String length: ' . $stringCount . "<br />
                        Min Chars: " . $max . "<br />
                        Error: To Short";
        }
        else {
            return true;
        }
    }

    else {
        return true;
    }
}

Answer 1

First, I would choose between returning a boolean or a string, but not both, the reason is to have an homogen interface.

However false could be used in case of error.

I’ll go for something like this:

function charCount($string, $min = null, $max = null) {
    $length = strlen($string);

    $result = false;

    if ($max && $length > $max) {
        $result = sprintf('String length: <br />Max Chars: <br />Error: To Long', $length, $max);
    }

    if ($min && $length < $min) {
        $result = sprintf('String length: <br />Min Chars: <br />Error: To Short', $length, $min);
    }

    return $result;
}