Question

if (task1 != null)
    //Do something with task1
else
{
     if (task2 != null)
         //Do something with task2
     else
     {
         if (task3 != null)
             //Do something with task3
         else
         {
             if (task4 != null)
                 //Do something with task4
         }
     }
}

Is there an alternative to the above code? I’m looking for a sort of ‘flatter’ way of kind of switch casing on the tasks depending which is not null.

Thanks a LOT in advance for anyone that can help.

Answer 1

It depends if your method does anything else. If it doesn’t, you can use:

if (task1 != null)
{
    // Do something with task1
    return;
}
if (task2 != null)
{
    // Do something with task2
    return;
}
if (task3 != null)
{
    // Do something with task3
    return;
}
if (task4 != null)
{
    // Do something with task4
    return;
}

(I was about to add the same point that Marc was making – if you’re going to do the same thing with whichever task is first non-null, then the null-coalescing operator is indeed your friend.)