Redesign (software) - List of Refactoring Techniques

List of Refactoring Techniques

Here are some examples of micro-refactorings; some of these may only apply to certain languages or language types. A longer list can be found in Fowler's Refactoring book and on Fowler's Refactoring Website. Many development environments provide automated support for these micro-refactorings. For instance, a programmer could click on the name of a variable and then select the "Encapsulate field" refactoring from a context menu. The IDE would then prompt for additional details, typically with sensible defaults and a preview of the code changes. After confirmation by the programmer it would carry out the required changes throughout the code.

• Techniques that allow for more abstraction
  • Encapsulate Field – force code to access the field with getter and setter methods
  • Generalize Type – create more general types to allow for more code sharing
  • Replace type-checking code with State/Strategy
  • Replace conditional with polymorphism
• Techniques for breaking code apart into more logical pieces
  • Componentization breaks code down into reusable semantic units which present clear, well-defined, simple-to-use interfaces.
  • Extract Class moves part of the code from an existing class into a new class.
  • Extract Method, to turn part of a larger method into a new method. By breaking down code in smaller pieces, it is more easily understandable. This is also applicable to functions.
• Techniques for improving names and location of code
  • Move Method or Move Field – move to a more appropriate Class or source file
  • Rename Method or Rename Field – changing the name into a new one that better reveals its purpose
  • Pull Up – in OOP, move to a superclass
  • Push Down – in OOP, move to a subclass