The importance of code refactoring
Today’s world is evolving super fast, we must be ready for new ideas, trends, and requirements from the clients. To be able to make appropriate changes in the projects quickly, efficiently, and keeping quality, we should have a perfectly written code. The process that can help us to keep code simple, clean, and clear is refactoring. During this process, you are not changing the current behavior, but improve the structure and make code easier to understand.
We can compare refactoring with creating a more comfortable atmosphere in our life. On the one hand, when we live in a clean and pleasant place, we feel a desire to spend more time in that place in order to create new things or develop our skills. On the other hand, a dirty and uncomfortable place causes unpleasant feelings. People would try to avoid it. The best decision, in this case, is to put things in order step by step with the help of best practices.
Why is code refactoring important?
To keep code clean.
Removing redundant code and unnecessary variables, simplification of complex and lengthy methods and classes are inevitable parts of the process in a team that would like to work in a good environment. Sometimes while adding new features developers can use existing code as a template and it should be perfect to keep the project free of illogical components. It makes the task easier to work on and onboard new team members with simpler code.
To debug more efficiently.
No doubt simple code is easy to debug and it is clear how it works. In this case, debugging and finding a problem area take less time. Simple and short methods, the correct names reflect the behavior that is expected.
To find bugs before real damage.
Some developers maintain that refactoring should not occur while you are dealing with bugs. But cleaner code equates to fewer bugs and better understanding the code. When you clean code there is a possibility to prevent bigger problems caused by bugs.
To save money and time in the future.
Good code is simple in maintenance and development. As the project becomes larger, developers need to add new features and enhance the project. But the question is how easy and fast they can make these changes. Adding new functionality to a code that is in a mess can be a cause of more bugs and difficulties in the future. This entails a loss of time and, as a result, money. To avoid unnecessary complexity it is important to refactor code.
To improve system design.
Over time developers learn new useful information on approaches in code design. For example, you implement some features and after a couple of months, you see your code and realize that it can be written more simply and easily. It is better to spend time in code refactoring and follow best practices instead of taking some quick and cheap choices because in the future new team members can be not so professional or have a lower level of skills and as a result, they can reuse this code while adding new functionality.
To sum up, we are getting a lot of benefits with regular code refactoring in any size and complexity of the projects. Every software developer working in a team or alone is responsible for writing clean and clear code. At Lightpoint Global, we do code refactoring on a regular basis to keep it clean, flexible, and scalable. It is very important for us to be proud of our work, to be ready to extend the code with new ideas super fast keeping its quality. Executing every Client’s idea super fast with appropriate quality, we bring him to success. We believe that our Client’s success is our success too!
