TL;DR: Don't pretend you are too smart. Clean code asks for readability and simplicity.

Problems

• Readability

• Maintainability

• Code Quality

• Premature Optimization

Solutions

• Refactor the code

• Use better names

Examples

• Optimized loops

Exceptions

• Optimized code for low-level operations.

Sample Code

Wrong

function primeFactors(n) {
  var f = [],  i = 0, d = 2;  

  for (i = 0; n >= 2; ) {
     if(n % d == 0) {
       f[i++]=(d); 
       n /= d;
    }
    else{
      d++;
    }     
  }
  return f;
}

Right

function primeFactors(numberToFactor) {
  var factors = [], 
      divisor = 2,
      remainder = numberToFactor;

  while(remainder>=2) {
    if(remainder % divisor === 0) {
       factors.push(divisor); 
       remainder = remainder/ divisor;
    }
    else{
      divisor++;
    }     
  }
  return factors;
}

Detection

Automatic detection is possible in some languages. Watch some warnings related to complexity, bad names, post-increment variables, etc.

Relations

Refactorings

Also Known as

• Obfuscator

Conclusion

Too clever developers write cryptic code to brag. Smart developers write clean code. Clear beats clever.

Tags

• Declarative

More Info

Credits

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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Programming can be fun, so can cryptography; however they should not be combined.

Kreitzberg & Shneiderman

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.