Study conducted as a part of the implementation of the project: “Entering American, British and Swedish markets with a comprehensive service of computer programs renovation (refactoring) by Codema”, No. POPW.Ol.02.00-06-0069/22. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme Eastern Poland 2014-2020.
EU funding for the project: 851,663.82 PLN
In theory and practice, there’s an ongoing search for increasingly improved methods of code refactoring. This is served, among other things, by the increasingly well-known set of SOLID principles – otherwise known as the basic principles of design. Below, the specifics of these principles and their significance will be presented.
SOLID – What are these principles?
SOLID is an acronym referring to five software design principles formulated by Robert C. Martin, which aid in creating flexible, maintainable, and extendable code. In this article, we will explore how the SOLID principles support the refactoring process in our work.
S – Single Responsibility Principle – This principle imposes on modules, classes, or functions the duty to have only one reason to change. In the context of refactoring, adhering to this principle simplifies the process by reducing complexity and increasing code readability. When each part of the system has a clearly defined role, it is easier to locate and fix bugs and implement improvements.
O – Open/Closed Principle – This principle states that software should be open to extension but closed to modification. In practice, this means that we should design modules that can be easily extended without modifying existing code. Implementing this principle in the refactoring process allows for easier addition of new functionalities without disrupting the existing code structure.
L – Liskov Substitution Principle – This principle states that objects in a program should be replaceable by instances of their subtypes without affecting the program’s correctness. In the context of refactoring, this principle helps maintain interface compatibility, which facilitates dependency management and improves code modularity.
I – Interface Segregation Principle – According to this principle, it is better to have many dedicated interfaces than one general interface. This allows us, during refactoring, to avoid unnecessary dependencies and maintain high cohesion in the system, which in turn translates to easier testing and maintenance of the code.
D – Dependency Inversion Principle – This principle dictates a dependency on abstractions, not concretes. Introducing this principle in the refactoring process allows for separating high-level modules from low-level details, which increases the reusability and testability of the code.
The SOLID principles constitute an extremely useful set of guidelines that support the code refactoring process. Their proper application leads to more flexible, readable, and maintainable code, which in turn facilitates and streamlines the refactoring process. Therefore, by staying up to date with the SOLID principles, developers can more consciously design and refine application code. If you care about having clear and readable code after refreshing it – contact us. At Codema, we successfully apply these principles, raising code refactoring to the highest level.
