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Clean code tips - names and functions

2020-07-21 10 min read Blog

I don’t have to tell you why you need to write clean code. Here you’ll see some tips about how to name things and how to structure functions

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- Davide

A few days ago I started (re)reading Clean Code by Robert Martin. It’s a fundamental book for programmers, so it worth reading it every once in a while.

But this time I decided to share on Twitter some of the tips that I find interesting.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow the retweets to this tweet, and join me in this reading.

In this series of articles, I’ll sum up what I’ve learned reading chapter 2 - Meaningful Names, and 3 - Functions.

Here’s the list (in progress)

  1. names and function arguments
  2. comments and formatting
  3. abstraction and objects
  4. error handling
  5. tests

1: Use consistent names

A good way to have a clean code is to use consistent names through the whole codebase. Just imagine what happens if you use different names to indicate the same concept.

Imagine that you need to retrieve data from many sources. You could define these methods

getArticles()
fetchUsers()
retrievePages()

and these other ones

getArticles()
getUsers()
getPages()

See the difference?

At the same time, there’s a big difference between

getArticleById(string id)
fetchSingleUser(string id)
useIdToRetrievePage(string id)

and

getArticleById(string id)
getUserById(string id)
getPageById(string id)

don’t you think?

2: Keep simple, small functions with meaningful names

Remember that your code must be clean enough to be easily readable without spending too much time trying to guess what a function does. Smaller functions are easier to read and to understand.

Take this function:

string printOnlyOddNumbers(int[] numbers)
{
	List<int> n = new List<int>() { };
	List<int> rev = new List<int>() { };
	foreach (var number in numbers)
	{
		if (number % 2 == 1)
		{
			n.Add(number);
		}
	}

	for (int i = n.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
	{
		rev.Add(n.ElementAt(i));
	}

	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
	for (int i = 0; i < rev.Count; i++)
	{
		sb.Append(rev.ElementAt(i));
	}
	return sb.ToString();
}

What can you see?

  1. the variables have meaningless names (what do n, rev and sb mean?)
  2. it does multiple things: it filters the numbers, reverses the list and saves them into a string
  3. the function name lies: it does not print the numbers, it stores them into a string.
  4. it has many levels of indentation: an IF within a FOR within a function.

Isn’t it better if we could split it into multiple, simpler functions with better names?

string storeOddNumbersInAReversedString(int[] numbers)
{
	List<int> oddNumbers = new List<int>() { };
	List<int> reversedNumbers = new List<int>() { };
	oddNumbers = getOnlyOddNumbers(numbers);
	reversedNumbers = reverseNumbers(oddNumbers);

	return storeNumbersInString(reversedNumbers);
}

List<int> getOnlyOddNumbers(int[] numbers)
{
	return numbers.Where(n => n % 2 == 1).ToList();
}

List<int> reverseNumbers(List<int> numbers)
{
	 numbers.Reverse();
	 return numbers;
}

string storeNumbersInString(List<int> numbers)
{
	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
	for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Count; i++)
	{
		sb.Append(numbers.ElementAt(i));
	}
	return sb.ToString();
}

Still not perfect, but it’s better than the original function. Have a look at the reverseNumbers function. It will cause trouble, and we’ll see why soon.

Also, notice how I changed the name of the main function: storeOddNumbersInAReversedString is longer than printOnlyOddNumbers, but it helps to understand what’s going on.

3: Keep a coherent abstraction level

Don’t mix different abstraction levels in the same function:

string storeOddNumbersInAReversedString_WithStringBuilder(int[] numbers)
{
	List<int> oddNumbers = new List<int>() { };
	List<int> reversedNumbers = new List<int>() { };
	oddNumbers = getOnlyOddNumbers(numbers);
	reversedNumbers = reverseNumbers(oddNumbers);

	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
	for (int i = 0; i < reversedNumbers.Count; i++)
	{
		sb.Append(numbers.ElementAt(i));
	}
	return sb.ToString();
}

Here in the same function I have two high-level functions (getOnlyOddNumbers and reverseNumbers) and some low-level concepts (the for loop and the .Append usage on a StringBuilder).

It can cause confusion on the readers because they won’t know what are important details and what are abstract operations. You’ve already seen how to solve this issue.

4: Prefer polymorphism over switch statements

You have this Ticket class:

public enum TicketType
{
	Normal,
	Premium,
	Family,
	Free
}

public class Ticket
{
	public DateTime ExpirationDate { get; set; }
	public TicketType TicketType { get; set; }
}

And a Cart class that, given a Ticket and a quantity, calculates the price for the purchase:

public class Cart
{
	public int CalculatePrice(Ticket ticket, int quantity)
	{
		int singlePrice;
		switch (ticket.TicketType)
		{
			case TicketType.Premium: singlePrice = 7; break;
			case TicketType.Family: singlePrice = 4; break;
			case TicketType.Free: singlePrice = 0; break;
			default: singlePrice = 5; break;
		}
		return singlePrice * quantity;
	}
}

Needless to say, this snippet sucks! It has static values for the single prices of the tickets based on the ticket type.

The ideal solution is to remove (almost) all the switch statements using polymorphism: every subclass manages its own information and the client doesn’t have to repeat the same switch over and over.

First of all, create a subclass for every type of ticket:

public abstract class Ticket
{
	public DateTime ExpirationDate { get; set; }
	public abstract int SinglePrice { get; }
}

public class NormalTicket : Ticket
{
	public override int SinglePrice { get => 5; }
}

public class PremiumTicket : Ticket
{
	public override int SinglePrice { get => 7; }
}

public class FamilyTicket : Ticket
{
	public override int SinglePrice { get => 4; }
}

public class FreeTicket : Ticket
{
	public override int SinglePrice { get => 0; }
}

and simplify the CalculatePrice function:

public int CalculatePrice(Ticket ticket, int quantity)
{
    return ticket.SinglePrice * quantity;
}

No more useless code! And now if you need to add a new type of ticket you don’t have to care about adding the case branch in every switch statement, but you only need a new subclass.

I said that you should almost remove every switch statement. That’s because you need to create those objects somewhere, right?

public class TicketFactory
{
	public Ticket CreateTicket(TicketType type, DateTime expirationDate)
	{
		Ticket ticket = null;
		switch (type)
		{
			case TicketType.Family:
				ticket = new FamilyTicket() { ExpirationDate = expirationDate };
				break;
			case TicketType.Free:
				ticket = new FreeTicket() { ExpirationDate = expirationDate };
				break;
			case TicketType.Premium:
				ticket = new PremiumTicket() { ExpirationDate = expirationDate };
				break;
			default:
				ticket = new FamilyTicket() { ExpirationDate = expirationDate };
				break;

		}
		return ticket;
	}
}

THIS is where you must use the TicketType enum and add new subclasses of the Ticket class!

PSST: wanna know some cool things about Enums? Here’s something for you!

5: avoid side effects

You often hear (correctly) that

A function must do one thing and to it well

This means that you also need to take care of side effects: avoid changing the state of the system or of the input parameters.

Do you remember the reverseNumbers function from the example above?

List<int> reverseNumbers(List<int> numbers)
{
	 numbers.Reverse();
	 return numbers;
}

It does a terrible, terrible thing: it reverses the input parameter!

List<int> numbers = new List<int> {1,2,3};

var reversedNumbers = reverseNumbers(numbers);
// numbers = 3,2,1
// reversedNumbers = 3,2,1

So now the state of the input parameter has changed without notifying anyone. Just avoid it!

6: Fewer arguments, better readability

Keep the number of function arguments as small as possible. Ideally you should have 0 or 1 arguments, but even 2 or 3 are fine. If more… well, you have to think about how to refactor your code!

What are the best cases for using one argument?

  • Check a property on that input (eg: isOdd(int number))
  • Transform the input variable (eg: ToString(int number))

Sometimes you just cannot use a single parameter, for example for coordinates. But you can group this information in an object and work on it. It’s not cheating if there’s a logic behind this grouping!

7: Prefer exceptions over error codes

Remember what I said about polymorphism and enums? The same applies to exceptions.

enum StatusCode {
	OK,
	NotFound,
	NotAuthorized,
	GenericError
}

StatusCode DoSomething(int variable){
	// do something
	return StatusCode.GenericError;
}

So for every user you should explicitly check for the returned status, adding more useless code.

Also, consider that if the DoSomething method also returns a value, you must return a tuple or a complex object to represent both the status and the value.

class Result
{
	public int? Value { get; set; }
	public StatusCode StatusCode { get; set; }
}

Result GetHalf(int number)
{
	if (number % 2 == 0) return new Result
	{
		Value = number / 2,
		StatusCode = StatusCode.OK
	}
	else
	{
		return new Result
		{
			Value = null,
			StatusCode = StatusCode.GenericError
		}
	}
}

Conclusion

This is a recap of chapters 2 and 3 of Clean Code. We’ve seen how to write readable code, with small functions that are easy to test and, even better, easy to understand.

As you’ve seen, I haven’t shown perfect code, but I focused on small improvements: reaching clean code is a long path, and you must approach it one step at a time.

As soon as I read the other chapters I’ll post some new tips.

Happy coding!

Clean Code

About the author

Davide Bellone is a Principal Backend Developer with more than 10 years of professional experience with Microsoft platforms and frameworks.

He loves learning new things and sharing these learnings with others: that’s why he writes on this blog and is involved as speaker at tech conferences.

He's a Microsoft MVP 🏆, conference speaker (here's his Sessionize Profile) and content creator on LinkedIn.

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