How to refactor complex if-statements

In this video, which is a part of the Mailcoach video course, Freek shows us how he refactors a complex if-statement.

A technique which I nowadays also like using myself – especially in a React Component’s render method – is to use early returns: instead of nesting if-statements and using else-statements, the function body uses singular if-statements which abort the function’s execution early on in case some condition is/isn’t met. Like so:

public function doSomething($someParameter, $someOtherParameter)
{
    if ($someParameter !== 0) {
        return;
    }

    if ($someOtherParameter !== 0) {
        return;
    }

    // do the actual work
}