🧠 The Tiny Details That Make You a Better Frontend Dev: Commas, Conditionals & Clarity

🧩 Real-World Context

While working on real-world UI tasks during my internship, I found myself doing something like this:

{title.name} @ {company_name}
// or
{location_state}, {location_country}

// no conditions for missing values

It worked… until one of those values was missing — and the UI ended up showing something weird like:

@ Google
, California

That’s when it clicked: it’s not just about just showing values — But also how you handle if one of them missing. This is where clean, conditional rendering becomes more than just a nice-to-have — it's a must.

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🧪 Example 1: Title and Company (@ logic)

❌ Problematic:

<p>{title.name} @ {company_name}</p>

If title.name is missing, this becomes:

@ Google

Not clean.

✅ Fixed:

{(title?.name || company_name) && (
  <p>
    {title?.name}
    {title?.name && company_name && " @ "}
    {!title?.name && company_name && "@ "}
    {company_name}
  </p>
)}

📌 Output:

• Both exist → Software Engineer @ Google

• Only title → Software Engineer

• Only company → @ Google

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🌍 Example 2: State and Country (Comma logic)

❌ Problematic:

<p>{location_state}, {location_country}</p>

If location_state is missing, you get:

, India

Looks broken.

✅ Fixed:

{(location_state || location_country) && (
  <p>
    {location_state}
    {location_state && location_country && ", "}
    {!location_state && location_country}
  </p>
)}

📌 Output:

• Both exist → California, USA

• Only state → California

• Only country → USA

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🧠 A Quick Reality Check

It’s easy to get caught up in just “getting things to work” — but real frontend maturity is in asking:

“What happens when one of these values is missing?”

And yes — icons too. Showing a location pin icon without a location value? That’s not cool either.

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🚫 A Small But Important Reminder

This one’s not code — it’s a mindset:

Don’t become someone who just refactors by copying code or running commands blindly.

Before fixing something or asking for help, ask yourself:

• “Why is this error happening?”

• “What would break if a value is undefined?”

• “What does this refactor really change?”

⚙️ Understand first. Then act. That’s how you grow, not just code.

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🎯 Final Thought

Frontend professionalism isn’t always flashy.
Sometimes, it’s just the simple care of not leaving a comma hanging — or an @ with nothing before it.

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