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Code Smell 55 - Object Orgy

Published
2 min read
Code Smell 55 - Object Orgy

If you see your objects as data holders you will violate their encapsulation, but you shouldn't, as in real life, you should always ask for consent.

TL;DR: Don't mess with other object's data.

Problems

  • Information Hiding Violation

  • Encapsulation Violation

  • Coupling

Solutions

  1. Couple to interfaces and behavior, never data.

Sample Code

Wrong

<?

final class Point {
    public $x;
    public $y;
}

final class DistanceCalculator {
    function distanceBetween(Point $origin, Point $destination) {
        return sqrt((($destination->x - $origin->x) ^ 2) + (($destination->y - $origin->y) ^ 2));
    }
}
<?

final class Point {
    private $rho;
    private $theta;

    public function x() {
        return $this->rho * cos($this->theta);
    }

    public function y() {
        return $this->rho * sin($this->theta);
    }
}

final class DistanceCalculator {
    function distanceBetween(Point $origin, Point $destination) {

        return sqrt((($destination->x() - $origin->x() ^ 2) + (($destination->y() - $origin->y()) ^ 2)));
    }

}

Detection

You can set your linters to warn you for public attributes, setters and getters usage and discourage them.

Tags

  • Coupling

Conclusion

If your classes are polluted with setters, getters and public methods you will certainly have ways to couple to their accidental implementation.

Also Known as

  • Inappropriate intimacy

Relations

More info

Credits

Picture by Nicolas Poussin


A data structure is just a stupid programming language.

Bill Gosper



This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

Last update: 2021/06/14

Code Smells

Part 1 of 50

In this series, we will see several symptoms and situations that make us doubt the quality of our developments. We will present possible solutions. Most are just clues. They are no hard rules.