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Code refactoring

Code refactoring

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Soumendra kumar sahoo
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4 min read

"Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behaviour of the code yet improves its internal structure." What does that exactly mean? I mean, we're not changing how it behaves, so the code's going to work the same way, but we're going to change the inner workings of it a little bit.

  • We refactor to reduce the complexity to add new features into the code.
  • Easy readability
  • Easy to enhance and add new features to the code
  • Reduce the time it takes to debug an issue
  • To improve the understandability of the code for non-authors like new programmers, delivery team or support team.
  • To reduce technical debts (a piece of code written in a limited time thinking to redesign it in future)

When to stop refactoring:

  • Taking too much time to refactor which is blocking other dependent applications and priority tasks
  • There is limited to no ROI (Return On Investment), which is very addictive for developers.
  • Refactoring is not same as redesigning the code. It is easier to start the coding from scratch than to refactor your own or somebody else's code.

Best practices

Importance of test cases

  • Unit test cases
  • Behavioural/Acceptance cases
  • IDE refactoring
  • IDE reformatting
  • Paired programming

Always take a backup before starting the refactoring

  • Sometimes the new design may look worse than current
  • More time and energy requirement
  • Redesigning of the code needed

Refactor keeping the future you in mind

Style guide

  • Use PEP8 style
  • Use Pylint and use .pylintrc to configure it as per the project
  • Similarly, you can use the optional static type checker mypy with mypy.ini for configuration
  • Always write unit test cases pytest with pytest.ini for its configurations
  • The code should be highly testable
  • Use a good IDE, PyCharm recommended
  • Use a code health checker deepsource, sonarlint, etc. are few which helps in finding complexities and many other things around the code
  • Use an automatic code formatter like black, autopep8, sort imports, etc.
  • Working in small steps and committing the code
  • Working in pair or group (pair programming or mob programming)

Test cases

  • Test cases should be readable.
  • Write Explicit Tests (WET)
  • Cover the boundary conditions
  • Write End to end test cases.
  • Start with broader tests and work towards unit testing.
  • Test large class or method can by pulling small portions out of it.
  • Test every possible decision tree path, i.e. conditional statements
  • Different types of tests are there:
    • Deployment
    • Integration
    • Regression
    • Fuzzy
    • UT
    • Linter

Recognizing issues in the code

Comments

  • Meaningless comments
    • Comments repeating the same thing as the function/class/statement
  • Confusing comments
  • Comments used as section label
  • Outdated comments
  • Comments to help in organize
  • Business and Developer using different nomenclature

Too many conditional statements

Names of variables, functions or classes

  • Write less character-based words, usually by removing the vowels like ctr, cty.
  • Using meaningless names like x, y, I, j, process, function, class, processes_data_and_many_other_stuffs
  • Giving selfish names: my_cls, our_cntry_func
  • Using the built-in keyword as a variable name like id, type

Large code bases

  • In method/function
  • In class
  • In a module

Negative logic

  • Checking conditional statements for negative cases and the positive condition is on the else part.

Passing too many parameters on a method/function definition

Too many returns on a large function

Duplicate code

Code smells

Zombie code

  • Commented code
  • Unused/Uncalled code
  • Unexecuted code

Deliberate attempt to write complex codes

  • Skill show off
  • Attempt to confuse.

Remove clutter, complexity and cleverness.

Common refactoring techniques

  • Better code sharing
  • Break parts into logical pieces
  • Improve format and names
  • Rename
  • Move
    • Moving the right piece of code to the right place
  • Extract
    • Replacing constant digits and strings with a constant variable
    • Deduplicating duplicate piece of codes
  • Inline
    • Reducing code lines for readability and simplicity
  • Improve formatting
  • Change signature
  • Replace nested conditional with a guard clause
  • Push members down
  • Replace magic number with symbolic constant
  • Apply experience and logic

Inside refactoring

  • Prepare the software for change
  • Improve the software
  • Clean up the software

Photo by Omar Flores on Unsplash

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