You make too many different changes in a single pull request TL;DR: Always stick to baby steps Problems Readability Code Review time and complexity Merge Conflicts Testing Challenges Solutions Break the change in atomic parts Context When pull requests become very large, they can pose several challenges and problems for development teams. You must avoid merge requests making different unrelated changes. Sample Code Wrong function generateFibonacci(ordinal) {
  const fibonacciSequence = [0, 1];

  for (let index = index; index < ordinal; index++) {
    const nextFibonacci = fibonacciSequence[index - 1]
          + fibonacciSequence[index - 2];
    fibonacciSequence.push(nextFibonacci);
  }

  return fibonacciSequence;
}

// This function solves a very different problem
// You should not mix them in a single pull request

function voyagerDistanceFromEarth(currentDistanceInKms, yearsTravelled) {
  const speedOfVoyagerInKmS = 17; 

  return currentDistanceInKms + 
        speedOfVoyagerInKmS * yearsTravelled * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365.25;
} Right function generateFibonacci(ordinal) {
  const fibonacciSequence = [0, 1];

  for (let index = index; index < ordinal; index++) {
    const nextFibonacci = fibonacciSequence[index - 1]
          + fibonacciSequence[index - 2];
    fibonacciSequence.push(nextFibonacci);
  }

  return fibonacciSequence;
}

// You break it into two different pull requests Detection Automatic: You can put a threshold and a warning on big merge requests. Exceptions Big refactors that cannot be made with baby steps Tags Complexity Level Beginner AI Assistants AI assistants do not create pull requests. They generate the code you need. Conclusion Software engineers must be experts at managing (and avoiding) . accidental complexity Relations Code Smell 170 - Refactor with Functional Changes Disclaimer Code Smells are my . opinion Credits Photo by on Håkon Grimstad Unsplash First make the change easy (warning: this might be hard), then make the easy change. Kent Beck Software Engineering Great Quotes This article is part of the CodeSmell Series. How to Find the Stinky Parts of your Code

The code in this story is for educational purposes. The readers are solely responsible for whatever they build with it.

Walkthroughs, tutorials, guides, and tips. This story will teach you how to do something new or how to do something better.

Code Smell 239 - Big Pull Request

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