Basic Code Structure Lessons I Wish I Learn Earlier

Writing codes with great structure is a hard, yet it is very crucial part of coding. It takes some skill to write well-structured code such as proper logical thinking, understanding of design patterns, and experience. The importance of structuring code shouldn’t be underestimated — structuring code is very important from a readability and maintainability standpoint. But most of the times, developer learned this lesson the hard way.

Below we have listed lessons you can learn from web designer and developer to improve the structure of your code.

Lesson 1: Designing

Designing a plan before you start writing code keeps you focused. By not spending time designing your application might give you a head start, but will eventually come back to bite you. It will result in having to refactor large parts of code which costs lots of time (and motivation) Spend some time creating your application, it will pay off.

A great way you can do this is by using UML diagrams. The UML diagrams you’ve created allow you to focus and not let your thoughts drift away. They also help you the flaws on your design so you can fix them before start coding.

Lesson 2: Code Conventions

A big part of structuring your code has to do with code conventions. Code conventions are very helpful to get team members or even your future self on the same page and they are a must-have for every project. Without coding conventions, your code will quickly transform from nicely structured to an unreadable mess.

Lesson 3: Use Design Patterns

To improve structure of your code, you should learn about design patterns and the way they work. You won’t come up with half-decent solution on your own when you are familiar with design patterns you could use in the given situation. By simply following the design principle your code will be in good shape most certainly. But like most things, overusing design patterns can lead to get an overengineered application that’s hard to grasp for other developers.

Lesson 4: Write Unit Tests

We always ask junior developers to try to write unit tests. Because in order to be able to write unit tests for your code, the code should at least be structured properly. So, it is a great practice that force you to get your code structured properly.

You’ve probably heard before about untestable code before — or you might have written it yourself. Untestable code is the sign of poorly designed code and it does way too many things. You’ll find yourself refactoring most of the time whenever you’re running into untestable code.