negated equal vs. not equal

Question

Lately, I've been reading some code that has

 if (! (a == b) ) 

instead of

 if ( a != b )

in some places.

Obviously these are logically equivalent, but I'm wondering if there is any particular reason to use one over the other.

Are there certain circumstances where one is preferable, or is it all just a matter of personal style?

Answer 1

I really prefer

if ( a != b )

simply because you are supposed to read less and you understand more quickly the message the programmer wanted to transmit.

Remember programmers spend more time reading code than writing it, so the more you can do to make code more understandable, the better.