Simplifying Conditional Expressions
As I’ve been reading through Refactoring by Martin Fowler, I’ve found it helpful to rewrite some of the examples from the book in PHP in order to cement the concepts into my mind. While Martin’s examples are primarily in Java, I’ve found an overwhelming majority of the concepts apply to PHP, which is where I spend most of my programming time.
In today’s article, I will attempt to rework the Simplifying Conditional Expressions (pp. 237-270) section into a handful of PHP-based examples.
Refactoring Techniques: Extract Method
A while back, I’d thrown out a question in the Laravel Slack channel asking people what the “must-reads” were for devs. Along with the obvious Uncle Bob books, someone (I believe it was Matt Stauffer) mentioned Refactoring - Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler. I looked it up on Amazon and while it was available, I found myself questioning whether a book that was dated 1999 would have any validity in the “modern” coding world I find myself in… not to mention that it didn’t appear to be written for PHP, which is the primary language I use.
I’m glad to say that I put aside my doubts, followed the recommendation, and picked up a copy!
Initially I was disappointed to see that the examples are written in Java, a language I know nothing about. However, I’ve been surprised to see how the broader concepts, such as organization and classes, relate very similarly to what I find myself dealing with in the PHP/Laravel world.