'If else' statement best practices

Question

Hey guys,
The latter half of my code giving the rankings looked like this:
if (counter === 5) {
  document.write('You got a Gold star!');
} else if (counter === 3 || counter === 4) {
  document.write('You got a Silver star!');
} else if (counter === 1 || counter === 2) {
  document.write('You got a Bronze star!');
} else {
  document.write('Sorry, but you are unfortunately unranked.');
}
In the video, Dave used the '>= 3', '>=1' and etc. The more I looked at it, Dave's code seemed to be more efficient. Is Dave's way a more common practice? Furthermore, is his code more Efficient?

Jason Anders · Accepted Answer

Hi @Randolph Wang (https://teamtreehouse.com/randolphwang) 
In the practice of getting the most "bang for your buck" and for readability, Dave's is better and the common practice.
If something can be done shorter and with less code, it is often (though not always) more readable and to the point. While both code blocks achieve the same end result, the former it a bit cumbersome and lengthy.  
else if (counter === 3 || counter === 4) ==> 40 keystrokes  
else if (counter >=3) ==> 21 keystrokes
Almost half the amount of typing. Now imagine this over 1000s (maybe tens or hundreds of thousands) of lines of code... That's lots of extra typing. Also this example reads much more clear and quickly, which is also very important. The first, you have to think for a second ==>  "anything that is a 3 or anything that is a 4".   
The second ==>  "anything 3 or larger"
See the difference? I hope this did answer you question and provide insight as to why one way is better.
Keep Coding! :) :dizzy:

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Randolph Wang

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'If else' statement best practices

1 Answer

Jason Anders

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Randolph Wang

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