Else on its own line 11/17/14

Until a couple weeks ago, I always put my else statements on the same line as the closing brace of the preceeding if statement. This style has always seemed cleaner and more logical to me. I’d also guess that it’s the most common way of writing an if/else¹.

if( condition ){
  // Do something
} else {
  // Do something else
}

However, after watching a few of Eliot Arntz’s Swift videos at Bitfountain², I’ve converted to putting my else statements on their own line.

if( condition ){
  // Do something
}
else {
  // Do something else
}

Sure, we’re now ‘wasting’ an extra line, but we’ve gained the ability to comment out the entire else statement quickly. It’s also easier to move the entire else block around if you’re using a text editor like Vim that operates on entire lines.