Solo dev fixes recurring e-commerce bug by eliminating multiple exit points in code
A solo developer running a small coffee e-commerce platform repeatedly encountered a bug where sold-out products remained orderable by customers, despite the admin panel correctly showing them as unavailable. The root cause was a stock-status function with seven early-return branches, each requiring a manual copy of an override check that the developer kept missing when adding new branches. After fixing the same bug three times, the developer paused to investigate the structural cause rather than applying another patch. The solution was to route all non-hidden branches through a single finalize() function containing the override logic, eliminating the need to duplicate the check across exits. The refactor preserved all existing test results while making it structurally impossible for future branches to bypass the override.
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