Benefits of using short-circuit evaluation

Question

boolean a = false, b = true;
if ( a && b ) { ... };

In most languages, b will not get evaluated because a is fals

Answer 1

A useful short circuit I use is something like this:

if (a != null && a.equals(somevalue)) {
    ... do something.
}

This is, in my opinion very readable, and functions quite well. Generally, I try too avoid to much nesting because it leads to ugly code.

All my opinion though.