Welcome to our captivating session on refactoring, a powerful tool for tidying up code, much like organizing a messy toy box or finding a faster route to school.
Just as each line of code is as essential as a brick in a building, clumsy code may lead to an unstable structure. Today, we'll focus on enhancing the readability, maintainability, and performance of our code through refactoring.
Let's briefly revisit a few key concepts:
- Code Smells: Indicators that our code needs refactoring, akin to clutter calling for cleanup.
- Refactoring Techniques: We've familiarized ourselves with
Extract Method
,Rename Method
, andSubstitute Algorithm
techniques in earlier lessons. - OOP in Refactoring: We've learned how to leverage Object-Oriented Programming principles to enhance our code's structure.
- Code Decoupling and Modularization: Methods to make code easier to manage by minimizing dependencies.
We'll use these concepts as guiding stars as we traverse the cosmos of refactoring.
We'll start by rewriting a complex game score computation function. Let's look at it:
php1class Game 2{ 3 public static function computeScore($player, $monsters) 4 { 5 $score = 0; 6 foreach ($monsters as $monster) { 7 if ($player->power > $monster) { 8 $score += $player->power - $monster; 9 } else { 10 $score -= $monster - $player->power; 11 } 12 } 13 return $score; 14 } 15}
This code uses an algorithm to adjust the score based on the player's and monsters' power. The parts $player->power > $monster
and $player->power - $monster
recur in this function, indicating room for refactoring. We'll apply the Extract Method
and Rename Method
to untangle this:
- We'll extract the scoring logic into a separate method,
scoreChange
. - We'll rename the original method to
computeGameScore
.
With these adjustments, our improved code might look something like this:
php1// New method to calculate score changes. 2class Game 3{ 4 private static function scoreChange($power, $monster) 5 { 6 return $power > $monster ? $power - $monster : $monster - $power; 7 } 8 9 // Refactored method to calculate the game score. 10 public static function computeGameScore($player, $monsters) 11 { 12 $score = 0; 13 foreach ($monsters as $monster) { 14 $score += self::scoreChange($player->power, $monster); 15 } 16 return $score; 17 } 18}
This refactoring has simplified the method and made it easier to modify in the future.
Let's consider another example where the game has multiple types of monsters. Each monster type behaves differently when encountered by a player.
php1class Game 2{ 3 public static function monsterReaction($monsterType, $player) 4 { 5 if ($monsterType === "ghost") { 6 if ($player->power > 5) { 7 echo "The ghost flees in terror!"; 8 } else { 9 echo "The ghost grumbles and attacks!"; 10 } 11 } elseif ($monsterType === "goblin") { 12 if ($player->power > 3) { 13 echo "The goblin groans and retreats!"; 14 } else { 15 echo "The goblin hacks with its sword!"; 16 } 17 } 18 // more monster types... 19 } 20}
This scenario could also benefit from refactoring using OOP and Code Decoupling:
- First, we'll introduce a class
Monster
with a methodreaction
that could be overridden by each type of monster. - Then, we'll create child classes
Ghost
andGoblin
that inherit fromMonster
and implement their ownreaction
methods.
Under the revised structure, our game code would look like this:
php1abstract class Monster 2{ 3 abstract public function reaction($player); 4} 5 6class Ghost extends Monster 7{ 8 public function reaction($player) 9 { 10 if ($player->power > 5) { 11 echo "The ghost flees in terror!\n"; 12 } else { 13 echo "The ghost grumbles and attacks!\n"; 14 } 15 } 16} 17 18class Goblin extends Monster 19{ 20 public function reaction($player) 21 { 22 if ($player->power > 3) { 23 echo "The goblin groans and retreats!\n"; 24 } else { 25 echo "The goblin hacks with its sword!\n"; 26 } 27 } 28} 29 30// Game class where List of Monsters is managed 31class Game 32{ 33 public static function main($args) 34 { 35 $player = new Player(4); // This is just an example instantiation. 36 $monsters = [new Ghost(), new Goblin(), new Ghost(), new Goblin()]; 37 38 foreach ($monsters as $monster) { 39 $monster->reaction($player); 40 } 41 } 42}
Now, our code dealing with multiple monsters is easier to manage and can be extended to accommodate more types of monsters.
Phew! We've done an excellent job working through two practical problems, enhancing our refactoring skills, and learning how to identify code smells and apply refactoring techniques.
The more you practice, the better you'll become at spotting code that could benefit from refactoring. Brace yourself for more practice tasks, and remember, always keep your code lean and efficient!