An object that appears and disappears mysteriously

TL;DR: Add the necessary indirection layers, but no more.

Problems

• Accidental complexity

• Readability

• YAGNI violation

Solutions

1. Remove the intermediate object

Context

A poltergeist (or gypsy wagon) is a short-lived object used to perform initialization or to invoke methods in another, more permanent class.

An object is responsible for many small tasks, resulting in excessive coupling and a lack of cohesion in the code.

Sample Code

Wrong

public class Driver
{
    private Car car;

    public Driver(Car car)
    {
        this.car = car;
    }

    public void DriveCar()
    {
        car.driveCar();
    }
}


Car porsche = new Car();
Driver homer = new Driver(porsche);
homer.DriveCar();

Right

Car porsche = new Car();

porsche.driveCar();
// We don't need the driver

Detection

[X] Manual

This is a design smell.

Tags

• Complexity

Conclusion

Don't add accidental complexity to the essential complexity we already have.

Remove middleman objects if they are not needed.

Relations

Code Smell 54 - Anchor Boats

Maxi Contieri ・ Jan 6 '21

#codenewbie #webdev #tutorial #cleancode

Code Smell 67 - Middle Man

Maxi Contieri ・ Apr 12 '21

#webdev #codenewbie #tutorial #oop

More Info

• Wikipedia

Disclaimer

Code Smells are my opinion.

Credits

Photo by Lan Gao on Unsplash

The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and avoiding its bastard chaos as effectively as possible.

E. W. Dijkstra

Software Engineering Great Quotes

Maxi Contieri ・ Dec 28 '20

#codenewbie #programming #quotes #software

This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

How to Find the Stinky parts of your Code

Maxi Contieri ・ May 21 '21

#codenewbie #tutorial #codequality #beginners