Breaking the code to favor readability asks for refactor.

TL;DR Don't add empty lines to your methods. Extract them!

Problems

• Readability

• Kiss

• Low Reuse

Solutions

1. Extract Method

2. Refactor

3. Remove unneeded lines.

Sample Code

Wrong

<?

function translateFile() {
    $this->buildFilename();
    $this->readFile();
    $this->assertFileContentsAreOk();
    //A lot of lines more

    //Empty space to pause definition    
    $this->translateHiperLinks();
    $this->translateMetadata();
    $this->translatePlainText();

    //Yet Another empty space
    $this->generateStats();
    $this->saveFileContents();
    //A lot of more lines
}

Right

<?

function translateFile() {
    $this->readFileToMemoy();
    $this->translateContents();
    $this->saveFileContents();  
}

Detection

This is a policy smell. Every linter can detect blank lines and warn us.

Tags

• Readability

• Long Methods

Conclusion

Empty lines are harmless, but show us an opportunity to break the code into small steps.

If you break your code with comments, it is also a code smell asking for a refactor.

Relations

Credits

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

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It’s OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn’t need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.

Steve McConnell

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.