Nested If Statements

Code Readability and Refactoring

Goal: Improve understanding and maintainability of Python code.

Key Aspects:

• Meaningful Names: Use descriptive variable, function, and class names. Avoid abbreviations unless widely understood within the context.

# Good
user_name = "Bob"
calculate_average(scores)

# Bad
un = "Bob"  # What does 'un' mean?
calcAvg(s) # too cryptic

• Consistent Formatting: Follow PEP 8 style guide (PEP 8 Style Guide) for indentation, line length, spacing etc. Use a linter (like pylint or flake8) to enforce consistency (Linters and Static Analysis)

# Good (PEP 8 compliant)
def my_function(param1, param2):
    """Docstring explaining the function."""
    result = param1 + param2
    return result

# Bad (inconsistent indentation and naming)
def myfunction(param1,param2):
    result=param1+param2
    return result

• Comments: Add comments to explain complex logic or non-obvious parts of the code, but avoid commenting obvious code. ( Effective Commenting)

# Good comment
# This section handles the complex calculation of the Fibonacci sequence
fibonacci_numbers = calculate_fibonacci(n)

# Bad comment - obvious code
# Add x and y
z = x + y 

• Functions and Modules: Break down large tasks into smaller, well-defined functions. Organize related functions into modules for better organization. (Modular Design in Python)

# Good - Modular approach
# module_a.py
def function_a():
    pass

# module_b.py
def function_b():
    pass

# main.py
import module_a
import module_b

module_a.function_a()
module_b.function_b()

# Bad - everything in one file
def function_a():
  pass
def function_b():
  pass
def function_c():
  pass
function_a()
function_b()
function_c()

• Refactoring Techniques:

  • Extract Method: Move a block of code into a separate function.
  • Rename Method/Variable: Improve clarity of names.
  • Move Method: Relocate a method to a more appropriate class.
  • Introduce Explaining Variable: Create a variable to represent a complex expression.
  • Consolidate Conditional Expression: Simplify nested if/else statements.

• Testing: Write unit tests to ensure code correctness and prevent regressions during refactoring (Unit Testing in Python)

• Code Reviews: Have another developer review your code for readability and potential issues.