Code Smell 68 — Getters

Getting things is widespread and safe. But it is a very bad practice.

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Problems

• Naming
• Information Hiding
• Coupling
• Encapsulation Violation
• Mutability
• Anemic Models

Solutions

1. Avoid Getters
2. Use domain names instead
3. Protect your implementation decisions.

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

Getters coincide in certain scenarios with a true responsibility. It will be reasonable for a window to return its color, and it may accidentally store it as color. So a color() method returning the attribute color might be a good solution.

getColor() breaks bijection since it is implementative and has no real counterpart on our mappers.

Most linters can warn us if they detect anemic models with getters and setters.

Tags

• Information Hiding

Conclusion

Getters and Setters are a poorly established practice. Instead of focusing on object behavior (essential), we are desperate to know object guts (accidental) and violate their implementation.

Relations

Code Smell 28 — Setters

Code Smell 01 — Anemic Models

Code Smell 64 — Inappropriate Intimacy

More info

Nude Models — Part II : Getters

The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself.

Alan Cooper

Software Engineering Great Quotes

This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

How to Find the Stinky parts of your Code