Util classes are great to gather protocol

TL;DR: Don't add accidental protocol to your classes

Problems

• Readability

• Single Responsibility Violation

• Bad Cohesion

• High Coupling

• Low Reusability

Solutions

1. Break your class

2. Extract Class

Related Refactorings

Context

We tend to put a protocol in the first class we find.

That's not a problem.

We just need to refactor.

Sample Code

Wrong

public class MyHelperClass {
  public void print() { }
  public void format() { }
  // ... many methods more

  // ... even more methods 
  public void persist() { }
  public void solveFermiParadox() { }      
}

Right

public class Printer {
  public void print() { }
}

public class DateToStringFormater {
  public void format() { }
}

public class Database {
  public void persist() { }
}

public class RadioTelescope {
  public void solveFermiParadox() { }
}

Detection

[X] Automatic

Most linters count methods and warn us.

Relations

More info

Refactoring Guru

Tags

• Cohesion

• Bloaters

Conclusion

Splitting classes and protocol is a good practice to favor small and reusable objects.

Credits

Photo by Marcin Simonides on Unsplash

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There is no code so big, twisted, or complex that maintenance can't make it worse.

Gerald M. Weinberg

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.