I’ve been studying Math and Computer Science in the University. It was quite a while ago.

Some disciplines looked somewhat useless, some seemed to be quite helpful. The main problem with them, was that you were given a big amount of theory and not always a proper amount practice.

In the end, it is up to you, to decide how you want to apply your knowledge.

One of such disciplines is:

Boolean Algebra

The following operations seems to be quite easy to comprehend, definitely not a rocket science:

x && y
y || z
!x
x & y

Ok, so why am I writing this post then? Because the real-world applications (web/mobile/server/etc) rarely include just this simple and, or, not operations.

Software is being made of those, they are everywhere. So as a developer, you need to be careful to construct the proper if condition for the app’s specific business logic.

Let’s assume the following example

Pretty obvious ones:

Commutativity

Order doesn’t matter

x && y == y && x
x || y == y || x

Identity & Annihilator

Some checks can be omitted:

// Identity
x && true == x
x || false == x
// Annihilator
x && false == false
x || true == true

Idempotence

x && x == x
y || y == y

Associativity

You are free to group your conditions as you wish.

isUser && (isConfirmed && isNew) == (isUser && isConfirmed) && isNew

post.isDeleted || (post.isExpired || post.rating < 0) === (post.isDeleted || post.isExpired) || post.rating < 0

Distributivity

x && (y || z) == (x && y) || (x && z)

Quite often we do it the other way around though, to make the expression look simple:

if ((user.isDeleted && user.karma < 0) || (user.isDeleted && user.postsCount < 5)) { .. }
// is the same as
if  (user.isDeleted && (user.karma < 0 || user.postcount < 5)) { .. }

Absorption

Did it happen to you when you stare at your expression and try to simplify it, because it looks like it should have a simpler form? I’m often stuck with those:

// we can drop rating check, because it doesn't influence on the final result:
post.hasComments && (post.hasComments || post.rating < 0) == post.hasComments

// and here we don't need to check if user was authorised recently, it wouldn't impact this particular check
user.isAdmin || (user.isAdmin && user.hasAuthorisedRecently) == user.isAdmin

Complementation

x && !x == 0
y || !y == 1

De Morgan’s laws

the negation of a conjunction is the disjunction of the negations;

!x && !y == !(x || y)

the negation of a disjunction is the conjunction of the negations;

!x || !y == !(x && y)

So comes also handy when you want to make the condition look simple. Although one can argue, which of those sides is easier to comprehend.

!isGuest && !user.isDeleted == !(isGuest || user.isDeleted)

!list.contains('milk') || !list.contains('beer') == !(list.contains('milk') && list.contains('beer'))

To be continued

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_algebra