This Season
 

How to Write Effective Object Oriented Code

The steps outlined in this article describe various tips and techniques for improving the quality of your object oriented code.

Related Searches:
    Difficulty:
    Moderate

    Instructions

    Things You'll Need

    • Thorough understanding of Object Oriented principles
      • 1

        Write tests first. This gets a programmer into the habit of thinking in terms of what the software is supposed to do and how clients will need communicate with it.

        Before a method is written, a test is written that verifies that the function performs according to spec. This allows a programmer to test, implement and debug in smaller steps - it is much easier to debug 10 lines of new code than 2000 after the fact!

      • 2

        Code by intention. This is the practice of pretending that classes, functions, procedures etc. exist (even though they do not) as you structure and write your code. This helps a developer think about the overall process and larger steps of software rather than the small details.

      • 3

        Avoid Redundancy. Developers usually know that duplicating code is not a good idea. However, duplication is usually introduced into projects without developers even knowing they are doing it. One common practice is when a new requirement come up that can be implemented exteremely quickly simply by cutting and pasting code and making a few minor adjustments.

        A better approach to this would be to get the original piece of code to work in both situations either by passing in variables or using a switch statement, etc.

      • 4

        Refactor as needed. This usually helps reduce redundancy and can strengthen the quality of code since code is re-written for clarity and maintainability. Test cases should prevent changing codes external behavior.

      • 5

        Encapsulate, encapsulate, encapsulate! Encapsulation is the concept of hiding implementation details. This allows developers the ability to change how a class stores and retrieves data or how an object is constructed (such as through the use of factories) without changing any objects that use or interact with that class.

    Related Searches

    Read Next:

    Comments

    Follow eHow

    Related Ads