Code 301 Reading Notes

Class 09

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Functional Programming Concepts

Functional programming is a programming paradigm :

a style of building the structure and elements of computer programs

that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions

and avoids changing-state and mutable data — Wikipedia

Pure functions

They return the same result if given the same arguments (it is also referred as deterministic)
also does not cause any observable side effects.
It returns the same result if given the same arguments

Immutability

When data is immutable, its state cannot change after it’s created.

If you want to change an immutable object, you can’t.

Instead, you create a new object with the new value.

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Refactoring Javascript for Readability source

Strategies:

Here are some straightforward to implement methods that can lead to easier to read code.

There are no absolutes when it comes to clean code — there’s always an edge case!

Return early from functions:

function showProfile(user) {
  if (user.authenticated === true) {
    // ..
  }
}

// Refactor into ->

function showProfile(user) {
  // People often inline such checks
  if (user.authenticated === false) { return; }
  // Stay at the function indentation level, plus less brackets
}

Cache variables so functions can be read like sentences:

function searchGroups(name) {
  for (let i = 0; i < continents.length; i++) {
    for (let j = 0; j < continents[i].length; j++) {
      for (let k = 0; k < continents[i][j].tags.length; k++) {
        if (continents[i][j].tags[k] === name) {
          return continents[i][j].id;
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

// Refactor into ->

function searchGroups(name) {
  for (let i = 0; i < continents.length; i++) {
    const group = continents[i]; // This code becomes self-documenting
    for (let j = 0; j < group.length; j++) {
      const tags = group[j].tags;
      for (let k = 0; k < tags.length; k++) {
        if (tags[k] === name) {
          return group[j].id; // The core of this nasty loop is clearer to read
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Check for Web APIs before implementing your own functionality:

function cacheBust(url) {
  return url.includes('?') === true ?
    `${url}&time=${Date.now()}` :
    `${url}?time=${Date.now()}`
}

// Refactor into ->

function cacheBust(url) {
  // This throws an error on invalid URL which stops undefined behaviour
  const urlObj = new URL(url);
  urlObj.searchParams.append('time', Date.now); // Easier to skim read
  return url.toString();
}

Reading

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