Yoda condition

Syllables: Yo·da con·dit·ionUK/ˌjəʊdə kənˈdɪʃn̩//ˌjoʊdə kənˈdɪʃən/

Yoda condition noun: a logical condition with the usual order of operands reversed for various reasons, such as avoiding the accidental misuse of = (assignment) instead of == (equality), an error that is harder to spot when using the normal order of operands.

Noun

Yoda condition (plural Yoda conditions)

(informal) A logical condition with the usual order of operands reversed for various reasons, such as avoiding the accidental misuse of = (assignment) instead of == (equality), an error that is harder to spot when using the normal order of operands.
- A great convention to stick to, the Yoda condition requires you to keep the comparison variable on the right side of the conditional statement.2013, Adam Onishi, “Getting Started”, in Pro WordPress Theme Development, Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 14
- A computer programmer is trying to explain a recent problem to a journalist friend, and she says, "This jimmy had put in Yoda conditions and had been refactoring my previous work so that in the end it was just hooker code." The journalist friend looks baffled.2014, Kirk Hazen, “The Winding Paths of Language in Education”, in An Introduction to Language (Linguistics in the World), Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 331
Synonyms:

Yoda notation

Examples of Yoda condition in a sentence

// what happens if the debug parameter is removed // from the request and becomes a null? // should really be using a Yoda Condition here ;)2015, Jim Manico, August Detlefsen, “Access Control”, in Iron-clad Java: Building Secure Web Applications (Oracle Press), New York, N.Y....
Alternatively, some (wise) people use what are called Yoda conditions to check an if statement: if(true == isHungry).2015 February, William Sherif, “If, Else, and Switch”, in Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4: Learn C++ Programming with a Fun...
"I never asked—how did you figure it out?" / "Yoda conditions.2020, Amy Noelle Parks, “Evie”, in The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-kiss, New York, N.Y.: Amulet Books, Abrams Books, →ISBN:

Synonyms of Yoda condition

Yoda notation

Forms of Yoda condition

plural	Yoda conditions

Origin of Yoda condition

An allusion to the somewhat grammatically reversed speech style of Yoda, a character in the Star Wars franchise—for example, "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is." The term was possibly coined by Félix Cloutier (username “zneak”) in 2010, based on Yoda notation which is claimed to have been coined by Thomas M. Tuerke and published online in 2006.

Words that rhyme with Yoda condition

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Yoda condition

What does Yoda condition mean?: Yoda condition means a logical condition with the usual order of operands reversed for various reasons, such as avoiding the accidental misuse of = (assignment) instead of == (equality), an error that is harder to spot when using the normal order of operands.
How do you use Yoda condition in a sentence?: // what happens if the debug parameter is removed // from the request and becomes a null? // should really be using a Yoda Condition here ;)
What part of speech is Yoda condition?: Yoda condition is a noun.
How do you pronounce Yoda condition?: Yoda condition is pronounced /ˌjəʊdə kənˈdɪʃn̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of Yoda condition?: The plural of Yoda condition is Yoda conditions.

Words near Yoda condition in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Yoda condition (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-Yoda condition.oga.

Cite this entry: “Yoda condition.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yoda_condition. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.