Minimizing the ripple effects means limit the force of changes to a program. Simply saying by keeping details secret in your code (information hiding or encapsulation).
Basically there are three ways of doing it:
By indirection
That means named constants replacing "magic numbers" in your piece of code.
e.g:
A magic number is a direct usage of a number in the code. see the following piece of code as example which is not best practice to use:
public class Foo {
public void setPassword(String password) {
// don't do this
if (password.length() > 7) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException("password");
}
}
}
Best practice is in the following code:
public class Foo { public static final MAX_PASSWORD_SIZE = 7;
public void setPassword(String password) { if (password.length() > MAX_PASSWORD_SIZE) { throw new InvalidArgumentException("password"); } }*** It will improve the readability of the code and of course maintainability.
*** Imagine the case where I set the size of the password field in the GUI. If I use a magic number, whenever the max size changes, I have to change in two code locations. If I forget one, this will lead to inconsistencies.
By minimizing visibility
Use private fields, package-private classes to hide information from public access.
By generic references
Use (polymorphism) - using high level references (interfaces or abstract classes) instead of low level references (concrete classes).
By minimizing visibility
Use private fields, package-private classes to hide information from public access.
By generic references
Use (polymorphism) - using high level references (interfaces or abstract classes) instead of low level references (concrete classes).
