Making one value "special"

Posted by SplashHit on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by SplashHit
Published on 2010-12-22T21:24:27Z Indexed on 2010/12/22 21:54 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 100

Filed under:

refactoring

|

code-smell

What is the "computer science" term for the practice of assigning a special meaning to one of a type's values. For example a numeric variable called "amount_to_transfer" where the special value "0" means "entire account balance" or a date value "spouse_date_of_birth" where "1/1/1800" means "unmarried".

I happen to feel that this is quite a bad "smell", but I'd like to have a name for it, and if possible, some blog post or article about why it's bad and how to fix it.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about refactoring

Reconciling the Boy Scout Rule and Opportunistic Refactoring with code reviews

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am a great believer in the Boy Scout Rule: Always check a module in cleaner than when you checked it out." No matter who the original author was, what if we always made some effort, no matter how small, to improve the module. What would be the result? I think if we all followed that simple… >>> More
Ubuntu 12.04 + Eclipse 64 bits key binding error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
The text is quite extense so, this is just a part of it: !SESSION 2012-11-23 10:15:52.442 ----------------------------------------------- eclipse.buildId=I20120608-1200 java.version=1.7.0_09 java.vendor=Oracle Corporation BootLoader constants: OS=linux, ARCH=x86_64, WS=gtk, NL=en_US Command-line… >>> More
How far did DevExpress get with Javascript refactoring?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Over a year ago, I remember watching one of DevExpress evangelists previewing or at least promoting rich Javascript refactoring (beyond just limited intellisense) within the Visual Studio shell, I recall part of CodeRush/DevExpress product line. I was excited. On checking today (lmgtfy) I can find… >>> More
Version control of software refactoring

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What is the best way of doing version control of large scale refactoring? My typical style of programming (actually of writing documents as well) is getting something out as quickly as possible and then refactoring it. Typically, refactoring takes place at the same time as adding other functionality… >>> More
How would you rewrite/refactor this ?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Old application that is used by 50-60.000 paying customers. Company is several hundred people big. Application has a lot of business critical code (30% of all code) written in classic asp. Application has a lot more .net code. Application has a COM+ bridge for enabling asp to "talk" to .net Organization… >>> More

Related posts about code-smell

SSIS code smell – Unused columns in the dataflow

as seen on SQL Blog - Search for 'SQL Blog'
A code smell is defined on Wikipedia as being a “symptom in the source code of a program that possibly indicates a deeper problem”. It’s a term commonly used by our code-writing brethren to describe sub-optimal code but I think the term can be applied equally well to SSIS packages too as I shall now… >>> More
Helper Casting Functions -- Is it a code smell?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I recently began to start using functions to make casting easier on my fingers for one instance I had something like this ((Dictionary<string,string>)value).Add(foo); and converted it to a tiny little helper function so I can do this ToDictionary(value).Add(foo); Is this a code smell? Also… >>> More
Casting functions -- Is it a code smell?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I recently began to start using functions to make casting easier on my fingers for one instance I had something like this ((Dictionary<string,string>)value).Add(foo); and converted it to a tiny little helper function so I can do this ToDictionary(value).Add(foo); Is this a code smell? (also… >>> More
Is using MultiMaps code smell? If so what alternative data structures fit my needs?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm trying to model nWoD characters for a roleplaying game in a character builder program. The crux is I want to support saving too and loading from yaml documents. One aspect of the character's is their set of skills. Skills are split between exactly three 'types': Mental, Physical, and Social.… >>> More
Fluent interface design and code smell

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
public class StepClause { public NamedStepClause Action1() {} public NamedStepClause Action2() {} } public class NamedStepClause : StepClause { public StepClause Step(string name) {} } Basically, I want to be able to do something like this: var workflow = new Workflow().Configure() … >>> More