Code Smell | Primitive Obsession

Code Smell | Primitive Obsession

November 29, 2021

codequality
refactorit
code-smell

Hello, today I am writing again and this time I am going to introduce you to how we incur in a very common code smell called Primitive Obsession, this code smell is given by the abusive use of primitive types when modeling our classes, was it not very clear? let's go with a reduced example:

class User {
    #locale: string
    #age: number
    #email: string
 
    #SPANISH_LANGUAGE: string = 'es'
    #UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE: number = 18
    #EMAIL_REGEX: RegExp =
        /^(([^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
 
    constructor(locale: string, age: number, email: string) {
        this.#locale = locale
        this.#age = age
        this.#email = email
 
        if (!this.isValidEmail()) throw new Error('Invalid email format')
    }
 
    understandSpanish(): boolean {
        const language = this.#locale.substring(0, 2)
 
        return language === this.#SPANISH_LANGUAGE
    }
 
    isOlderAge(): boolean {
        return this.#age >= this.#UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE
    }
 
    isValidEmail(): boolean {
        return this.#EMAIL_REGEX.test(this.#email)
    }
}
const user = new User('es', 18, 'test@email.com')
 
user.understandSpanish() // true
user.isOlderAge() // true
user.isValidEmail() // true

You might be thinking, Well, it's not so bad, right?

This example, being small, can be a bit misleading, but as the code of our User class begins to grow, we will begin to see more clearly that there is still some logic that we have within the class that we could abstract so that our class looks much better

Our best friends: Value Objects

A value object is simply a modeling of a primitive type, let's see an example:

class Email {
    #email: string
    #EMAIL_REGEX: RegExp =
        /^(([^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
 
    constructor(email: string) {
        this.#email = email
 
        if (!this.isValid()) throw new Error('Invalid email format')
    }
 
    isValid(): boolean {
        return this.#EMAIL_REGEX.test(this.#email)
    }
 
    value(): string {
        return this.#email
    }
}
 
new Email('suso@gmail.com').value() // "suso@gmail.com"
new Email('susogmail.com').value() // Error: Invalid email format

As we can see, we are simply creating an abstraction of a primitive string type, within which we are adding logic to validate that the email we receive is valid, in this way we can reuse this VO in different parts of our application

What advantages does a VO offer me?

Refactoring time

Initial state:

class User {
    #locale: string
    #age: number
    #email: string
 
    #SPANISH_LANGUAGE: string = 'es'
    #UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE: number = 18
    #EMAIL_REGEX: RegExp =
        /^(([^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
 
    constructor(locale: string, age: number, email: string) {
        this.#locale = locale
        this.#age = age
        this.#email = email
 
        if (!this.isValidEmail()) throw new Error('Invalid email format')
    }
 
    understandSpanish(): boolean {
        const language = this.#locale.substring(0, 2)
 
        return language === this.#SPANISH_LANGUAGE
    }
 
    isOlderAge(): boolean {
        return this.#age >= this.#UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE
    }
 
    isValidEmail(): boolean {
        return this.#EMAIL_REGEX.test(this.#email)
    }
}

Split User class code into three value objects: Locale, Age and *Email

Locale

class Locale {
    #locale: string
    #SPANISH_LANGUAGE: string = 'es'
 
    constructor(locale: string) {
        this.#locale = locale
    }
 
    understandSpanish(): boolean {
        const language = this.#locale.substring(0, 2)
 
        return language === this.#SPANISH_LANGUAGE
    }
 
    value(): string {
        return this.#locale
    }
}

Age

class Age {
    #age: number
    #UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE: number = 18
 
    constructor(age: number) {
        this.#age = age
    }
 
    isOlderAge(): boolean {
        return this.#age >= this.#UNDERAGE_UNTIL_AGE
    }
 
    value(): number {
        return this.#age
    }
}

Email

class Email {
    #email: string
    #EMAIL_REGEX: RegExp =
        /^(([^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+(\.[^<>()\[\]\\.,;:\s@"]+)*)|(".+"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
 
    constructor(email: string) {
        this.#email = email
 
        if (!this.isValid()) throw new Error('Invalid email format')
    }
 
    isValid(): boolean {
        return this.#EMAIL_REGEX.test(this.#email)
    }
 
    value(): string {
        return this.#email
    }
}

Finally the User class, it would stay like this:

class User {
    #locale: Locale
    #age: Age
    #email: Email
 
    constructor(locale: Locale, age: Age, email: Email) {
        this.#locale = locale
        this.#age = age
        this.#email = email
    }
 
    understandSpanish(): boolean {
        return this.#locale.understandSpanish()
    }
 
    isOlderAge(): boolean {
        return this.#age.isOlderAge()
    }
}

As you can see in this way, we manage to encapsulate each functionality in its corresponding value object in such a way that the user class is not responsible for carrying out any validation, so that we will achieve a more readable and maintainable code over time

Using new refactored User class:

// with valid email
const user1 = new User(
    new Locale('es'),
    new Age(18),
    new Email('suso@gmail.com')
)
 
user1.understandSpanish() // true
 
// with invalid email
const user2 = new User(
    new Locale('es'),
    new Age(18),
    new Email('susogmail.com')
)
 
user2.understandSpanish() // Error: Invalid email format

Warning!

Not all are advantages, below we will see some disadvantages that we must consider when applying these abstractions:

Thanks for reading me 😊

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