Using NOT operator in IF conditions

No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using the ! operator in if..then..else statements.

The naming of variables, and in your example, methods is what is important. If you are using:

if(!isPerson()) { ... } // Nothing wrong with this

However:

if(!balloons()) { ... } // method is named badly

It all comes down to readability. Always aim for what is the most readable and you won't go wrong. Always try to keep your code continuous as well, for instance, look at Bill the Lizards answer.


It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you have no else clause then if(!doSomething()) seems fine. However, if you have

if(!doSomething()) {
    ...
}
else {
    // do something else
}

I'd probably reverse that logic to remove the ! operator and make the if clause slightly more clear.


As a general statement, its good to make your if conditionals as readable as possible. For your example, using ! is ok. the problem is when things look like

if ((a.b && c.d.e) || !f)

you might want to do something like

bool isOk = a.b;
bool isStillOk = c.d.e
bool alternateOk = !f

then your if statement is simplified to

if ( (isOk && isStillOk) || alternateOk)

It just makes the code more readable. And if you have to debug, you can debug the isOk set of vars instead of having to dig through the variables in scope. It is also helpful for dealing with NPEs -- breaking code out into simpler chunks is always good.