Is it bad practice to place an if/else inside of another else?

Question

if() {

}else {
    if (IsAlternateRow=='true')
        IsAlternateRow = 'false';
    else
        IsAlternateRow = 'true';
}

Can I place an if and else statement inside of another else statement?

Answer 1

Note: the question got re-tagged as JavaScript after this answer was posted (it was originally about Java, so this answer is about Java).

In general, it is fine to place an if and an else inside an else clause.

There are, however, several issues with your code. IsAlternateRow=='true' isn't syntactically valid.

• If it's a string comparison, you should use double quotes and .equals();
• If it's a boolean comparison, you're better off simply doing IsAlternateRow = !IsAlternateRow instead of the entire nested if.

Answer 2

Yes, placing an if inside an else is perfectly acceptable practice but in most cases use of else if is clearer and cleaner. E.g.

if (test) {
   // Do something
} else if (otherTest) {
   // Do something else
} else {
   // Do a third thing
}

infact this is short-hand for

if (test) {
   // Do something
} else {
     if (otherTest) {
         // Do something else
     } else {
         // Do a third thing
     }
}

and the two should compile to almost identical programs in most situations.

Your code example is not very clear and will not compile correctly, clearer sample code may help us to help you out.