Code Smell 01 - Anemic Models
Maxi Contieri
Posted on October 20, 2020
Your objects have no behavior.
TL;DR: Don't use objects as data structures
Protocol is empty (with setters/getters).
If we ask a domain expert to describe an entity he/she would hardly tell it is 'a bunch of attributes'.
Problems
No Encapsulation.
No mapping to real world entities.
Duplicate Code
Writer / Reader mismatch.
Solutions
1) Find Responsibilities.
2) Protect your attributes.
3) Hide implementations.
4) Delegate
Examples
- DTOs
Sample Code
Wrong
<?
class Window {
public $height;
public $width;
function getHeight() {
return $this->height;
}
function setHeight($height) {
$this->height = $height;
}
function getWidth() {
return $this->width;
}
function setWidth($width) {
$this->width = $width;
}
}
Right
<?
final Class Window{
function area(){
//...
}
function open(){
//..
}
function isOpen(){
//..
}
}
Detection
Sophisticated linters can automate detection.
They should ignore setters and getters and count real behavior methods.
Also Known as
- Data Class
Tags
- Anemic
- OOP as Data
- Encapsulation
- Setters/Getters
- Mutability
Conclusion
Avoid anemic models. Focus always on protocol instead of data.
Behaviour is essential, data is accidental.
Relations
More info
- Wikipedia
- Refactoring Guru
- Nude Models — Part I : Setters
- Nude Models — Part II : Getters
- How to Decouple a Legacy System
Object-oriented programming increases the value of these metrics by managing this complexity. The most effective tool available for dealing with complexity is abstraction. Many types of abstraction can be used, but encapsulation is the main form of abstraction by which complexity is managed in object-oriented programming.
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock
Software Engineering Great Quotes
Maxi Contieri ・ Dec 28 '20
Credits
Photo by Stacey Vandergriff on Unsplash
This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.
How to Find the Stinky parts of your Code
Maxi Contieri ・ May 21 '21
Last update: 2021/05/30
Posted on October 20, 2020
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