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Clean Code

One dot per line saves time

Today I want to introduce you to a simple rule that I apply when developing software. This rule often saves me a lot of time and it is simple to apply. I usually write code in Java and so the rule is made for Java programming in the first place, but it might also be adapted to other languages. I call that rule One dot per line The dot character in Java is primarly used for dereferencing. This also means that it can lead to NullPointerExceptions. The nature of NPEs is that they contain few context information. java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateParser$TimeZoneStrategy.<init>(FastDateParser.java:869) at org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateParser.getLocaleSpecificStrategy(FastDateParser.java:637) at org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateParser.getStrategy(FastDateParser.java:606) at org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateParser.access$100(FastDateParser.java:73) at org.apache.commons.lang3.time.FastDateParser$StrategyParser.letterPattern(FastDateParser.java:234) … This is primarily a… Read More »One dot per line saves time

Clean Code with underscores in literals

As of java 1.7 the java language specification allows integer literals to contain underscores in order to make them more readable. If it is applied in a good way it can enormously increase the readability of your code. In java 1.6 one had to define integer literals like this: int iterations = 10000000; long bytes = 0b11010010011010011001010010010010; With java 1.7 such integer literals can be written more readably by using the underscore as a  thousands separators. int iterations = 10_000_000; or when using binary literals one can use the underscores to group bytes long bytes = 0b11010010_01101001_10010100_10010010;   Further information can be found at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/language/underscores-literals.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-3.html#jls-3.10.1 Recommended Reading  

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