Category: Refactoring

July 4, 2020

Refactoring If Statements to Lookup Tables

This is the first in a series of posts that explore refactoring if statements. In this one, I’ll cover refactoring if statements to lookup tables. These are if statements that you can also model as a key/value pair lookup. You may know lookups by another name such as dictionaries, hash sets, maps or object literals. This depends on which language...

C#/Refactoring/Software Design Comments: 0

October 14, 2018

The Single Level of Abstraction Principle (SLAP)

The Single Level of Abstraction Principle (SLAP) tells us that each method should work at a single level of abstraction, but what does that mean? The Problem Let’s look at the following code that prints the numbers 1 to 35. It’s a bit of a nonsensical example but it’ll do for the discussion that follows: class Main { public static...

Java/Refactoring/Software Design Comments: 0

April 20, 2017

Helpers, Utils and Hot Spots

In my last post I talked about the danger of having classes with names that end in “helper”, “util”, “impl” in your codebase and how you should avoid them. To carry on with that topic I’ve found some, albeit loose, evidence that visualises the phenomenon and supports my claims. I came across a fantastic book called Your Code as a Crime Scene by Adam Tornhill which...

Code Smells/Refactoring Comments: 0

April 12, 2017

The Problem With Helpers, Manager and Utils

Have you ever come across a class in a project you’ve worked on with something like “helper”, “service” or “util” in the name? Unless you’re one of the fortunate few who’ve never had to regularly have a steaming hot plate of spaghetti code for your breakfast, lunch and dinner, then I’m guessing you have. Do you remember if that file...

Code Smells/Refactoring/Software Design Comments: 0