Simplifying if statement logic

Question

I have seperated out a test to determine if two schedule items overlap because of the unreadability of it.

Is there any application to assist in simplifying a logic statement?

Example: (originally a faulty example, but exposes reasons I request this)

if (x < y && y < z && x < z)  

could be reduced to

if (x < y && y < z)

My code is:

return (shift.Start <= shift2.Start && shift.End >= shift2.End) || (shift2.Start <= shift.Start && shift2.End >= shift.Start)

I would love to make that simpler, and I believe it's possible, just unsure how.

Seeing as this is really language agnostic, even converting to a different script to find possibilities would be nice, no need for it to be in C# for instance.

Answer 1

When it comes to complex logic statements, you're usually best off with formatting your code in a readable manner than attempting some premature optimization (root of all evil, etc.)

For example:

return (shift.Start <= shift2.Start && shift.End >= shift2.End) || (shift2.Start <= shift.StartTime && shift2.End >= shift.Start)

Can, for readability and maintainability, be refactored to:

bool bRetVal = false;
bRetVal = (    (   (shift.Start <= shift2.Start)
                && (shift.End >= shift2.End))
            || (   (shift2.Start <= shift.StartTime)
                && (shift2.End >= shift.Start)))
return bRetVal;

Most places maintain a coding standard that defines something like the above for large logic blocks. I'd much rather maintain a few extra lines of code that can be read and understood than a one line monstrosity.