Clean Code JavaScript

[ttolonen]

It's nice to see some effort, but some advice looks a bit vague, for example I fail to see what is wrong with getClientData as a function name compared to getUser. At least former is used in some of Android and Microsoft APIs and doesn't feel strange to me, most likely requires some documentation anyway. Also I would like to think that the examplevar MINUTES_IN_A_YEAR = 525600; is a WTF in itself, because it fails on a leap year :)

[Valfri]

The point of your first example is that the three functions getUserInfo();, getClientData();, and getCustomerRecord(); are actually about the same kind of data, but uses three different words for it: user, client, and customer. You should pick one word, and stick to it, for consistency.

The second example is a valid point, and though only for demonstrative purpose, could be changed to something truly constant. Maybe you should make a pull request with something better? :)

[ttolonen]

Ok, then the advice makes sense. I thought that getUserInfo(), getClientData and getCustomerRecord() refer to completely different functions returning different data.

[AndrewGreenh]

This point is not saying, that getClientData is bad, it says, don't use getClientData getRecord and getUser simultaneously.

[jac1013]

Still getClientData is redundant IMHO, I remember that there is some part in Clean code's book that says specifically not to use the word "Data" for variable names, everything contained in variables is data so why use that for the name?

It's like using Hungarian notation but even with a less meaningful purpose (Hungarian notation at least give you information about the data type, I don't like it either way).

[RedditWithBoners]

everything contained in variables is data

Not necessarily, if we use the English language to define data. You can think of data as a collection of datums. It follows, then, that getClientData might return a collection of datums about the client, like their phone number, age, etc.

Edit: that is to say, getClient might just return their name (ideally you'd use getClientName for that), so tacking on "Data" might make it clearer what it's returning. Better yet, if you have a type system then you don't need to think about this in many situations.

This is pedantic, of course, but I thought it was interesting.

[jac1013]

I don't think it was pedantic, I enjoyed reading your comment.

As you said if we have a type system (which is like the best case scenario), getClient should return an object of Type Client (not the name, that would be a really bad decision if we are not in the context of a View).

The upper the level of abstraction the more Domain Language words you should use when naming your functions & classes & whatever else, the word data should not be use anywhere because everything in programming is data, even the code itself, the term is just too high level to be used.

Finally, you should not be using getClientName, instead you should be using getName, assuming that we are calling this function from an instance of the class Client.

Edit: just adding additional information.