Early return — my favourite quick refactor

TL:DR when you see if/elses see if its possible to use early returns.

Code samples are in Ruby.

Here’s an example of some code I found in our User model recently.

def cancel_account
  if cancellable?
    update(status: "cancelled", cancelled_at: Time.zone.now)
  else
    false
  end
end 

This looks fine but, if we use early return we can make it

def cancel_account
  if !cancellable?
    return false
  end
  update(status: "cancelled", cancelled_at: Time.zone.now)
end

I would not say the original code for cancel_account was complex or too difficult to understand. However, the new version I find a lot easier to read and understand.

Adding the cancellable? check to the start works like a guard clause. That is we have all the things that would stop this method completing its actions right at the top.

Also because ruby is so pleasant we can remove the if end and do a one-liner instead so we end up with

def cancel_account
  return false if !cancellable?
  update(status: "cancelled", cancelled_at: Time.zone.now)
end