How to prevent the arrowhead anti-pattern

Question

I\'m a bit confused about how to best refactor my code into something more readable.

Consider this piece of code:

var foo = getfoo();
if(foo!=null)
{         


        

Answer 1

An alternative is to use a "fake" single loop for controlling program flow. I can't say I'd recommend it, but it's definitely better looking and more readable than arrowhead.

Adding a "stage", "phase" or sth like that variable may simplify debugging and/or error handling.

int stage = 0;
do { // for break only, possibly with no indent

var foo = getfoo();
if(foo==null) break;

stage = 1;
var bar = getbar(foo);
if(bar==null) break;

stage = 2;
var moo = getmoo(bar);
if(moo==null) break;

stage = 3;
var cow = getcow(moo);

return 0; // end of non-erroreous program flow
}  while (0); // make sure to leave an appropriate comment about the "fake" while

// free resources if necessary
// leave an error message
ERR("error during stage %d", stage);

//return a proper error (based on stage?)
return ERROR;