How to Make your If Statements more readable by using this ES2020 Feature

Have you ever written an if-statement like this?

// The object we are working with
const car = {
  make: {
    name: "bmw",
    founded: 1916,
    country: "germany",
  },
};

if (car && car.make && car.make.name && car.make.name === "bmw") {
  // Do something.
}

In JavaScript, we often check if each property exists. We do this because we don't want to run into errors.

The only problem:

• It's ugly
• It's harder to read than it needs to be
• Noise-to-Signal Ratio is high

THE BETTER WAY

Thanks to optional chaining which is part of ES2020, you can now do this:

// The object we are working with
const car = {
  make: {
    name: "bmw",
    founded: 1916,
    country: "germany",
  },
};

if (car?.make?.name === "bmw") {
  // Do something.
}

• Beautiful
• Easier to read
• Noise-to-Signal Ratio is low

In my opinion, it's the best way to check if a property exists in your if statements.