If it is too complicated, you are doing something wrong.

Recently i found myself fighting to come up with a “good” way to accomplish what i needed to code.  I was dealing with logic to determine if something existed, and if the data was the same, if either condition was true i needed to update and then save changes.

 

I basically had the below.

function ( int id, int attributex, int attributey){

item x = null;

x = find(id);

if( x ==null){

item = new item();

item.attributex = attributex;

item.attributey = attributey

}else{

if(attribute x changed || attribute y changed){

item.attributex = attributex;

item.attributey = attributey;

}

}

 Add(item);

SaveChanges();

 

}

 

So basically the problem was that i only wanted to update the DB if it DNE or if something changed, but i didn’t want to copy the SaveChanges, or Add logic inside the two else statements.  So i tried a couple of different approaches, setting a Boolean if something changed,  reorganizing logic.  Until i realized what i was trying to do was wrong!

 

Basically there were two differn’t use cases.  If it doesn’t exist i wanted to ADD it and then Save changes.  But if it was an update, i simply just wanted to update it, and save changes.  Before i was trying to add AND update for both cases, which logically was wrong.

 

 

Basically this made me think back to all the times when i had been fighting with something for a good amount of time, before realizing that the reason it was so complicated was because fundamentally it was wrong.

 

 

So i guess the reason i wasted your time, and all these words, was so next time you find something that is way too complicated, i want you to think about it and come to the conclusion: the reason it is soo hard, is because you have the wrong solution!.

 

 

Anything is possible, you just need to find the right way to acomplish your goal.