Switch refactoring on the road to polymorphism

G'day:

A while back I wrote an article "Code smells: a look at a switch statement". That deals with a specific case which was pretty tidy to start with, and wasn't completely clear as to whether the original or my refactoring was "better" (I think the initial switch was OK in this case).

Exceptions will always prove the rule as "they" say, and I'm gonna chalk that one up to a case of that. Also a good example of why sometimes it's not good to be dogmatic about rules.

However there a coupla general forms of switch statements that one can codify general refactoring advice for. Well: the main general rule is "switches are seldom necessary in your business logic code". If you find yourself writing one: stop to think if yer letting yerself down from an OOP perspective.

The other two situations I'm thinking of boil down to sticking to the Single Responsibility Principle: not munging more than one thing into a function basically. In the case of a switch, the two things are "what to do" and "how to do it". As well as when you fire a switch right into the middle of some other code, it's obvious it's breaking the SRP.

I'll start with that latter one.

Instead of this:

function f() {

    // code statements
    
    switch
    
    // code statements
}

Do this:

function f() {
    // code statements
    
    switchHandler()
    
    // code statements
}

function switchHandler() {
    switch
}

Note that switchHandler quite possibly doesn't even belong in the same class as the code using it.

In this case the first function is already probably doing more than one thing… it's got three sections, so that says "three things" to me. The whole thing should be looked at, but take the switch out completely. It is definitely and clearly doing at least one additional thing just by itself.

The second one is the other way around. Don't do this:

function f() {
    switch (expression) {

        case "A":
            // implementation of A
            break;

        case "B":
            // implementation of B
            break;

        case "C":
            // implementation of C
            break;

        default:
            // implementation of default
    }
}

Do this:

function f() {
    switch (expression) {

        case "A":
            caseAHandler()
            break;

        case "B":
            caseBHandler()
            break;

        case "C":
            caseCHandler()
            break;

        default:
            defaultHandler()
    }
}

function caseAHandler() {
    // implementation of A
}

// etc

Keep the "what to do" and the "how to do it" separate from each other: they are two different things (and the "how to do it" are each different things, so you have an 1+n degree of code smell going on there).

If you do these two things, a proper polymorphic handling of the situation - wherein you just use a type to deal with the logic - might start becoming more clear. Even if it doesn't straight away, this will make the refactoring easier when it does. You could use a factory to get the correct case handler, or if you know ahead of time what expression is, you can just pass in the correct handler in the first place. Or some other way of doing things. But even without taking it further, your code is less smelly, so is better.

Also note that if you have multiple switch statements with the same expression, then it's a clue that the whole lot should come out into its own class, and that a more OOP handling of the situation would simplify your code.

I only had 15min to write this this morning, so apologies it's a bit clipped-sounding. Must dash.

Righto.

--
Adam