Programming Concepts Intermediate

What is Refactoring?

Restructuring existing code without changing its external behavior to improve readability, maintainability, and performance.

Refactoring improves code quality without altering functionality. Common refactoring operations include extracting methods, renaming variables, removing duplication, simplifying conditionals, and breaking up large classes.

Automated tests are essential for safe refactoring — they verify behavior remains unchanged after restructuring. IDEs provide automated refactoring tools. Martin Fowler's "Refactoring" book is the definitive guide.

Related Terms

Singleton Pattern

A design pattern that restricts a class to a single instance and provides a global point of access to that instance.

The practice of designing application programming interfaces that are consistent, intuitive, and maintainable for developers to consume.

A programming technique where a function calls itself to solve a problem by breaking it into smaller subproblems.

Testing individual components or functions of a program in isolation to verify they work correctly.

Dependency Injection

A design pattern where objects receive their dependencies from external sources rather than creating them internally.

A surface indication in code that usually corresponds to a deeper problem in the system, suggesting the need for refactoring.

View All Programming Concepts Terms →