Software Refactoring

Hello everyone!

In this article, I am going to discuss some basic information on the topic software refactoring which will build up a basic understanding of the concept in your minds.

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What is Software Refactoring?

Refactoring →Re + factoring → this means changing the existing factorization of our code.

What is factorization?

Factorization of a code is its structure, or the arrangement of different components that decide the external behavior of the code.

A software program can be written in different structures of codes, where a single program can be written in different styles of code. But as a software developer, it is your responsibility to choose the most appropriate, simple, effective and manageable code structure. Refactoring also helps you with this. If an already chosen code structure seems complicated, then you refactor or re-structure the code to make it simple and easy to understand.

Refactoring is the process of improving the code while maintaining the existing functionality or behavior of the system. It is the process where you improve your system without changing the external behavior of the code while changing the internal structure of the system. The aim of refactoring is to have a clean code. A clean code is something that is obvious, does not contain any duplicates, contains minimal number of classes, passes all the tests, and is easier and cheaper to maintain.

Refactoring can also be understood as restructuring an existing code with the evolution of requirements which makes the code more simple and manageable while being error free. Here we can modify the code, we can add more codes or we can remove the existing code to make the program function well without any complications.

Goal of refactoring is to change the internal structure of the code without affecting its external behavior. We might want to do refactoring to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, readability and manageability of the system.

Why refactoring?

1. To improve code readability (you need to do it to make people understand your code and also this makes the QA and debugging processes to go smoothly).
2. To reduce the complexity. (so that your software can run at any time without any issue,and easy to handle).
3. To improve source code maintainability.
4. It creates more enhanced internal architecture (so you can make the system more user friendly, and more interactive).
5. To create a better design.
6. You remove the excess code to make it look simpler and understandable. Longer codes are hard to understand.
7. To understand the code more. Understanding the code more makes you understand the system more.
8. With less code, you can modify the code easily and write the code quicker.
9. Easy to read the code with refactoring.
10. With refactoring, you make the code small and thus you avoid duplication, long methods, large classes, complex conditional statements etc.

It is better to clean up the code now than paying a lot to solve the tremendous errors that arise later. So don’t ignore refactoring your code and to maintain a clean code.

It is better to consider refactoring before adding any new updates to your software or before adding any new features to your software. This will improve the code quality and also the developers can easily build up the original code base.

Keep in mind that code refactoring should not affect how the system behaves. Improper refactoring can cause the software to behave undesirably, can cause errors and might require additional troubleshooting as well.

When should we refactor?

We can not fix a time for refactoring. It happens all the time in simple ways. You don’t need to decide for refactoring, in some cases in order to accomplish something you will obviously need refactoring and you can begin then and there.

Most commonly we will need refactoring when we are adding a new function or feature to our system. It is because you will need to understand the existing code of the system before adding the new feature and may be refactoring can make your system’s design more comfortable to add on the new functionality.

Refactoring will be helpful in fixing bugs. When you refactor, you can understand your code more. When you understand your code well, then you can easily find the bug and fix it.

Refactoring will be useful in code reviews as well. It will help you to understand someone else’s code more and to review it well than just going through their code and doing review. With refactoring you can understand their code more, provide suggestions for their code then and there and your review results will be concrete.

Before refactoring, the system must go through unit testing.

Most common refactoring techniques

• Red-Green refactoring
• Refactoring by abstraction
• Composing method
• Simplifying methods
• Moving features between objects
• Preparatory refactoring
• User interface refactoring

Best practices in software code refactoring

• Make smaller steps. Refactor code with small changes.
• Do not update or add any new features while refactoring.
• Refactor only when it is practical.
• Involve QA and testing team in refactoring.
• Understand the code before refactoring.
• Keep in mind that your current refactored code will also be outdated in a period of time. Then again you have to refactor.

This brings us to the end of this article. Hope you all got a clear understanding on software refactoring.