sort, sortOld, sort20210117, workingSort, It is great to have them all. Just in case

Problems

• Readability

• Maintainability

Solutions

1. Keep just one working version of your artifact (class, method, attribute).

2. Leave time control to your version control system.

Sample Code

Wrong

findMatch()
findMatch_new()
findMatch_newer()
findMatch_newest()
findMatch_version2()
findMatch_old()
findMatch_working()
findMatch_for_real()
findMatch_20200229()
findMatch_thisoneisnewer()
findMatch_themostnewestone()
findMatch_thisisit()
findMatch_thisisit_for_real()

Right

findMatch()

Detection

We can add automatic rules to find versioned methods with patterns.

Like many other patterns we might create an internal policy and communicate.

Tags

• Versioning

Conclusion

Time and code evolution management is always present in software development. Luckily nowadays we have mature tools to address this problem.

Relations

Credits

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

Original idea

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That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.

Chuck Palahniuk

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.