March, 2005: Coding for Readability

    if ( $user =~ m/^$loginName$/) {
      if ( $password =~ m/^$password$/) {
        return 1;
      }
    }

Becomes this:


    if (    $user     =~ m/^$loginName$/
        &&  $password =~ m/^$password$/ ) {
      return 1;
    }

Becomes this:


    return 1 if     $user     =~ m/^$loginName$/
                &&  $password =~ m/^$password$/;

Then goes back in as this:


  while ( <FH> ) {
    my( $user, $password ) = ( split /\t/, $_ )[1, 2];
    return 1 if     $user     =~ m/^$loginName$/
                &&  $password =~ m/^$password$/;
  }

Figure 1: Transforming if statements for readability.

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