Objects or Functions need too many arguments to work

Problems

• Low maintainability

• Low Reuse

• Coupling

Solutions

• Find cohesive relations among arguments

• Create a "context".

• Consider using a Method Object Pattern.

• Avoid "basic" Types: strings, arrays, integers, etc. Think on objects.

Exceptions

• Operations in real world needing not cohesive collaborators.

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

Most linters warn when the arguments list is too large.

Tags

• primitive

Conclusion

Relate arguments and group them. Always favor real world mappings. Find in real world how to group the arguments in cohesive objects.

If a function gets too many arguments, some of them might be related to the class construction. This is a design smell too.

Relations

Credits

Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.