diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/LineColumn.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/LineColumn.java
index 4263ec162..d85e2af94 100755
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/LineColumn.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/api/LineColumn.java
@@ -58,12 +58,8 @@ public class LineColumn implements Comparable<LineColumn>
     /** {@inheritDoc} */
     public int compareTo(LineColumn aLineColumn)
     {
-        if (this.getLine() != aLineColumn.getLine()) {
-            return this.getLine() - aLineColumn.getLine();
-        }
-        else {
-            return this.getColumn() - aLineColumn.getColumn();
-        }
+        return (this.getLine() != aLineColumn.getLine())
+            ? this.getLine() - aLineColumn.getLine()
+            : this.getColumn() - aLineColumn.getColumn();
     }
-
 }