Question

I am working with Delphi. Does it make any difference in performance if we write if condition in different ways? For example:

if (condition) then
   someVar := someVal
else
   someVar := someOtherVal;  

Or we can write:

if (condition) then begin
   someVar := someVal;
end else begin
   someVar := someOtherVal;
end;  

I prefer the second option just because it looks better than the first one.

Answer 1

No, there is no difference in performance, the code created will be identical.

An aspect that might be more important than that the second option looks nicer, is that it is better for maintainence. If you need to add another statement in the else block, you will not accidentally forget to add the begin and end, which would put the statement outside the if and always be executed.