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Programming Concepts Beginner

What is DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)?

A software development principle that aims to reduce code duplication by abstracting common patterns into reusable components.

DRY states that every piece of knowledge should have a single, unambiguous representation in a system. Duplicate code means duplicate bugs and duplicate maintenance effort. Extract common logic into functions, classes, or modules.

However, premature abstraction can be worse than duplication. The "Rule of Three" suggests abstracting only after seeing the same pattern three times. WET (Write Everything Twice) and AHA (Avoid Hasty Abstractions) are counterbalancing principles that warn against over-abstraction.

Related Terms

Event-Driven Architecture
A software design pattern where components communicate by producing and consuming events rather than direct method calls.
Factory Pattern
A creational design pattern that provides an interface for creating objects without specifying their exact classes.
SOLID Principles
Five design principles for writing maintainable, flexible object-oriented code: Single Responsibility, Open-Closed, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion.
Regex (Regular Expression)
A sequence of characters that defines a search pattern, used for string matching, validation, and text manipulation.
Garbage Collection
An automatic memory management process that identifies and reclaims memory no longer in use by a program.
Clean Code
Code that is easy to read, understand, and maintain — following consistent conventions, meaningful naming, and single-responsibility functions.
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