String Concatenation and Comparison

Question

I have the below code. I have list of status which contain may contain 4 values. R,UR,DO,NDO

based on this list. i need to convert to Y,N values

If list contains R the Readstatus="Y"

If list contains UR the Readstatus="N"

If both the ReadStatus="Y,N"

If list contains DO the DoneStatus="Y"

If list contains NDO the DoneStatus="N" If both the DoneStatus="Y,N"

the below code works but its too ugly. is there any thing i can change

 Dim Readstatus As String = ""
 Dim DoneStatus As String = ""
 If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Status) Then
 Dim listStatus = Status.Split(",").ToList()
 If listStatus.Contains("R") Then
 Readstatus = "Y"
 End If
 If listStatus.Contains("UR") Then
 If String.IsNullOrEmpty(Readstatus) Then
 Readstatus = "N"
 Else
 Readstatus = Readstatus & ",N"
 End If
 End If
 If listStatus.Contains("DO") Then
 DoneStatus = "Y"
 End If
 If listStatus.Contains("NDO") Then
 If String.IsNullOrEmpty(DoneStatus) Then
 DoneStatus = "N"
 Else
 DoneStatus = DoneStatus & ",N"
 End If
 End 

Answer 1

It's interesting to notice that when you parse your input, you break a comma-separated string into a list of values. The end result of your code can be achieved much more cleanly if you take a similar (but inverted) approach, i.e. generate a list of values and then have the comma-separated string generated from that list.

It's counterintuitive for the logical branching in your code to be significantly more complex than the logical branching in your description of the behavior. These should map one to one. You can just translate your pseudocode logic exactly as is.

The reason your code ended up being more complex is because you needed to add the whole "add a comma or don't" logic to it - which can be avoided by relying on String.Join, which performs that logic for you, as long as you supply it with a collection of values.

If list contains R the Readstatus="Y"
If list contains UR the Readstatus="N"

Dim readStatusList As New List(Of String)
If listStatus.Contains("R") Then
 readStatusList.Add("Y")
End If
If listStatus.Contains("UR") Then
 readStatusList.Add("N")
End If
Dim readStatus As String = String.Join(",", readStatusList)

The exact same applies to the "done" status:

If list contains DO the Donestatus="Y"
If list contains NDO the Donestatus="N"

Dim doneStatusList As New List(Of String)
If listStatus.Contains("DO") Then
 doneStatusList.Add("Y")
End If
If listStatus.Contains("NDO") Then
 doneStatusList.Add("N")
End If
Dim doneStatus As String = String.Join(",", doneStatusList)