SerhiiCho / timeago

Small methods make your code easier to understand, in particular if combined with a good name. Besides, if your method is small, finding a good name is usually much easier.

For example, if you find yourself adding comments to a method's body, this is usually a good sign to extract the commented part to a new method, and use the comment as a starting point when coming up with a good name for this new method.

Commonly applied refactorings include:

• If many parameters/temporary variables are present:

  • Replace temporary variables with Query
  • Introduce parameter object; often combined with preserve whole object
  • If the above two are insufficient: Replace method with method object
• If you have long conditionals: Decompose Conditional
• Otherwise: Extract method

Complex classes like timeago.applyCustomTranslations often do a lot of different things. To break such a class down, we need to identify a cohesive component within that class. A common approach to find such a component is to look for fields/methods that share the same prefixes, or suffixes.

Once you have determined the fields that belong together, you can apply the Extract Class refactoring. If the component makes sense as a sub-class, Extract Subclass is also a candidate, and is often faster.