Everything You Need to Know About Refactoring: Improving the Quality of Your Coding

As your day-to-day business life changes, so will your needs regarding your internal computer services. The code you may currently have may be outdated or may no longer serve its purpose. 

There are two ways you can go about this situation: you can either completely replace the coding or refactor it. What does it mean to refactor your coding? It’s simple, refactoring refers to the process of taking old coding and reworking it to change the factoring and its functions without changing its external behaviors. This process is faster and may be beneficial to your business, but there is much more that goes into refactoring if this is a considerable option for you. 

We have all the information you need to learn more about whether refactoring could be useful to your applications. 

Why Refactoring is Important 

Refactoring is crucial because it yields many benefits. First off, refactoring can improve the overall design of your software. By rebuilding your current software, you can improve upon its architecture and quality. Refactoring your software and coding can also make it easier for both the programmers and computer users to understand your platform. Even better, when the code is easier to read and operate, your computers will be able to detect bugs or glitches within the coding much more easily. 

When You Must Refactor Coding

Now that you’re aware of the importance of refactoring is so important, it’s time to talk about when refactoring is most necessary or when it can be done. Whenever you need to add a new feature or functionality to your database, refactoring can implement the new change with ease because it already works to optimize your coding. It is also best to look into refactoring if your coding becomes confusing or simply does not suit your software-based needs. 

Testing Your Applications 

Before you begin to refactor your code, you have to test your current code to see where it stands. Once you conduct these tests, you can move on to refactoring. Testing your current software also allows you to see if any changes have been made to the coding, which shows you exactly where your coding might stand in terms of how well it serves you and your software. You don’t have to do complete testing either, you could simply run unit tests or integration tests, which take a quick look at your coding. 

Code Smells: An Indication of Error

“Code smell†is a term that indicates your coding is going bad and is no longer fulfilling its purpose. There are many factors that indicate a presence of code smell, or coding that poses a serious problem, including:

• Redundant or identical code
• Overcomplicated coding design 
• Code that serves little purpose
• Code that requires change/refactoring in one or more parts

These indications can become more apparent over time, as your software functions and requires change. The factors can start affecting your entire software if you don’t look into refactoring.

Techniques of Refactoring

Abstraction Technique 

The abstraction technique is one of many ways that refactoring can be done. This method is best to use when there are large portions of refactoring that need to be taken care of. Overall, the method of abstraction is to reduce unnecessary duplications in the software. Abstraction can be broken into sub-methods. For example, the pull-up/push-down method refactors in classes to eliminate code duplication with ease. Other sub-methods have specific ways of reworking the coding. 

Composing Method 

Just like the abstraction technique, the composing method also works to reduce duplications. The composing method utilizes extraction and inlining. Extraction breaks down the code into smaller code to make it easier to look at fragments and move them around in the coding. Inline refactoring looks to find how coding can be replaced and deleted, thus being simplified. 

Preparatory Refactoring

Another technique is preparatory refactoring. This method is best to use in refactoring when you want to add a new feature as you are cleaning up your coding. It makes new changes easier to implement if you have this done during refactoring. It can be considered a software update. This is best when it comes to reducing technical difficulties later on. 

Enhance Your Applications and Coding with Marble Computer!

The professionals at Marble Computer have the knowledge and tools to optimize your applications, coding, and languages that keep your business up and running. If you’re looking to enhance your application management, you’ve come to the right place. Contact us today to learn more and to get started with us!