Maxi Contieri

Posted onJan 20, 2021 • Edited onOct 1, 2021 • Originally published atmaximilianocontieri.com

Code Smell 57 - Versioned Functions

#codenewbie #codesmell #webdev #tutorial

sort, sortOld, sort20210117, workingSort, It is great to have them all. Just in case

Problems

Readability
Maintainability

Solutions

Keep just one working version of your artefact (class, method, attribute).
Leave time control to your version control system.

Sample Code

Wrong

findMatch()findMatch_new()findMatch_newer()findMatch_newest()findMatch_version2()findMatch_old()findMatch_working()findMatch_for_real()findMatch_20200229()findMatch_thisoneisnewer()findMatch_themostnewestone()findMatch_thisisit()findMatch_thisisit_for_real()

Right

findMatch()

Detection

We can add automatic rules to find versioned methods with patterns.

Like many other patters we might create an internal policy and communicate.

Conclusion

Time and code evolution management is always present in software development. Luckily nowadays we have mature tools to address this problem.

Relations

Code Smell 05 - Comment Abusers

Maxi Contieri ・ Oct 24 '20

#codenewbie#tutorial#beginners

Credits

Photo byK8 onUnsplash

Original idea

That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.

Chuck Palahniuk

Software Engineering Great Quotes

Maxi Contieri ・ Dec 28 '20

#codenewbie#programming#quotes#software

This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

How to Find the Stinky parts of your Code

Maxi Contieri ・ May 21 '21

#codenewbie#tutorial#codequality#beginners

Top comments(3)

Junxiao Shi

stallion coder; push-up specialist

Location
Gaithersburg MD
Work
computer networking researcher at NIST
Joined
Oct 4, 2019

• Jan 20 '21

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What if:

It's a C function, where optional arguments are not supported.
A new version of the function adds an extra argument.
Old version cannot be deleted because it would break dependants.

The only way is to keep both old and new functions.

Real example:pipe and pipe2 in Linux syscall

Michiel Hendriks

I shouldn't have written all of those tank programs.

Location
End of line!
Education
MSc
Joined
Mar 31, 2017

• Jan 20 '21

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That doesn't change the fact that it is a code smell. Sometimes language or runtime restrictions make code smells unavoidable.

Maxi Contieri

Learn something new every day. - I am a senior software engineer working in industry, teaching and writing on software design, SOLID principles, DDD and TDD.