Lets make our code talk - episode 2

In our previous post episode -1, we spoke on how we can make our variable names can talk and all of them put together can tell their story on their own.

But if we see, in our previous code snippet, we can improve it much more than what it is now. Lets go get it here...

var customersBilledThisMonth; //fill the list here for(int currentCustomerNode=0; currentCustomerNode<customersBilledThisMonth.count;                   currentCustomerNode++) {         if(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].billedAmount>750)        {              Console.WriteLine(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].customerName);         } }

We can see a number in the code, right? Hey, what is this? Have a look at it a little closely...

Yeah!! I get it. It says if the value billedAmount is greater than 750, we enter the IF-condition. 

Okay, now let us make our code better. Let it talk to us on its own.

var customersBilledThisMonth; //fill the list here var currentMonthTotalBillAmount = 750; for(int currentCustomerNode=0; currentCustomerNode<customersBilledThisMonth.count;            currentCustomerNode++) {         if(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].billedAmount> currentMonthTotalBillAmount)        {              Console.WriteLine(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].customerName);         } }

That's it? Not really.
Lets make it little more readable and story telling thing. What if the client want this value to be changed to $900 next month? Open the project, change the code, build and deploy again? NO. So what we do is make it configurable.

Add the below code in config.cs

<appSettings> <add key ="currentBillingAmount" value = "750"/> </appSettings>

change the value assigned to the variable as below

var currentMonthTotalBillAmount = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("currentBillingAmount");

Now, add the string that's hard coded into an enum file or a constants file, so that if the name spelled at different areas stay the same and there are no typos.

Observed the change? Now its more easy to understand what the code is doing?

There are many more ways than just this. This is one way of making our code do the right thing than just deliver the mere functionality.

 Yes, its telling its story. Will talk more in the next episode.

Lets make our code talk

Whaaattt......how can a code talk? Its Okay. Don't get too confused. Lets jump in....
Everyday, we spend most of our time writing the best that we believe is good for the project that we work on. At the end of the day, it should not just remain like - do some work on a button click or change content of the page based on a drop-down.

The code behind the application should tell you as a developer what it is doing.

example:
Requirement: There is a list that holds the customers for a company who have billed the highest for the current month. We should loop through the list and print the names of the customers in the list whose billing amount is greater than $750.

Code:

var custLst;

//fill the list here

for(int i=0;i<custLst;i++)
{
        if(custLst[i].BildAmt>750)
       {

             Console.WriteLine(custLst[i].Name);

        }
}

as you can read through, we will understand that it prints the name onto the console pane for the condition where the billing amount is greater than $750 by looping through the list. LIST..."i"......!!!

So whats the great deal????......... just think again... is the code really conveying the same as what we talked as above??? ......... NOT REALLY.....RIGHT???

now we will tweak the above same code to make it talk and tell its story on its own.... yes code should tell what it is doing and its story....


var customersBilledThisMonth;

//fill the list here

for(int currentCustomerNode=0; currentCustomerNode<customersBilledThisMonth; currentCustomerNode++)

{

        if(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].billedAmount>750)

       {

             Console.WriteLine(customersBilledThisMonth[currentCustomerNode].customerName);

        }

}

the above code makes more sense, isn't it?
We will talk more about  - Lets make our code talk in the next post

Introduction post

All right, the name says it all. Magic by a programmer? It's all about magic a programmer can do in his/her day-to-day activities.

Here on this page, we together will talk, share, discuss, learn and gain knowledge on how we can better ourselves as a developer and as a programmer.

We shall start our journey with a little sweet talk on "how we can make our code talk more"

So, stay tuned.