Code Smell 45 - Not Polymorphic

Code Smell 45 - Not Polymorphic

Methods should be interchangeable if they do the same.

Problems

  • Missed Polymorphism

  • Coupling

  • IFs / Type check Polluting.

  • Names coupled to types.

Solutions

  1. Rename methods after what they do.

  2. Favor polymorphism.

Sample Code

Wrong

Detection

This is a semantic mistake. We could add a warning for similar method names on Polymorphic classes.

Tags

  • Polymorphic

Conclusion

Naming is very important. We need to name after concepts and not after accidental types.

Relations

More info


If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don't bother. Nowadays, the idea of giving a name to every file on your computer is ridiculous.

David Gelernter



This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.