Turning if statements into a collection of classes requires a bit more thoughts than "Stop Writing If-Else Trees"
Sometimes the State pattern transforms "one big if-else tree" into "a forest of tiny classes" with its own complexity tax. Good design isn't about eliminating conditionals — it's about putting them where they make the most sense.
The real skill is knowing when your state transitions are complex enough to warrant the abstraction overhead.
I sort of agree. I think that rather than develop that skill, many programmers just don’t care and add another “if”. The default I’ve seen is not a forest of classes but a warren of conditional logic.
Conditional logic falls into 3 categories, more or less:
1. Algorithms
2. Validation
3. Type replacements
It’s the third that is most common, and always “wrong”. Sometimes it’s better to keep conditional logic rather than try and figure out the correct type modeling. But most often, the programmer reaching for “if” isn’t even aware of what they are doing. They have a hammer, and everything looks like a nail.
Comments
Turning if statements into a collection of classes requires a bit more thoughts than "Stop Writing If-Else Trees"
Sometimes the State pattern transforms "one big if-else tree" into "a forest of tiny classes" with its own complexity tax. Good design isn't about eliminating conditionals — it's about putting them where they make the most sense.
The real skill is knowing when your state transitions are complex enough to warrant the abstraction overhead.
I sort of agree. I think that rather than develop that skill, many programmers just don’t care and add another “if”. The default I’ve seen is not a forest of classes but a warren of conditional logic.
Conditional logic falls into 3 categories, more or less:
1. Algorithms 2. Validation 3. Type replacements
It’s the third that is most common, and always “wrong”. Sometimes it’s better to keep conditional logic rather than try and figure out the correct type modeling. But most often, the programmer reaching for “if” isn’t even aware of what they are doing. They have a hammer, and everything looks like a nail.