I use Xcode for development and it already warns against assignment within conditions[0]. gcc also warns against it[1]. Python just errors out all together[2]. I don't have my Windows instance up with Visual Studio but I'm fairly certain that it too notifies you of assignments within conditions.<p>So the question is, why would you sacrifice readability to help solve a non-issue?<p>[0]<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjtefd55mwigq3y/Screenshot%202014-03-09%2020.51.54.png" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjtefd55mwigq3y/Screenshot%202014-...</a><p>[1]<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/yx01tdeykpkespv/Screenshot%202014-03-09%2021.00.13.png" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/yx01tdeykpkespv/Screenshot%202014-...</a><p>[2]<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ex9dskab82n52qf/Screenshot%202014-03-09%2021.04.24.png" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/ex9dskab82n52qf/Screenshot%202014-...</a>
Not sure of readability, but this surely is a neat trick to avoid null pointer exceptions, etc. (and it can be extended to cover other, related cases..):<p><pre><code> String myString = null;
if ("foobar".equals(myString)) { /* ... */ }</code></pre>