You show an error and provide no useful information TL;DR: Help yourself and others with correction information Problems Debugging and maintenance challenge. Fail Fast Principle violation Debugging complex situations. Solutions Add all the relevant information to solve the solution Context When you are reporting an error, either via an information text in the UI, by processing an API request, or by creating a test assertion, you need to provide an exit (a possible solution). This is very relevant when dealing with complex scenarios, large objects, or arrays with minimal mistakes. Sample Code Wrong VALID_COLUMNS = ['name', 'gender', 'email']

def process_API_information(data):
    invalid_columns = []
    for column in data.keys():
        if column not in VALID_COLUMNS:
            invalid_columns.append(column)
    
    assert not invalid_columns, "Invalid columns detected."  
    # No details were provided about which columns are invalid
     
 
data = {'name': 'John', 'gender': 'Pangender', 
        'age': 47, 'email': 'john@example.com'}
process_API_information(data) Right VALID_COLUMNS = ['name', 'gender', 'email']

def process_API_information(data):
    invalid_columns = [
        column for column in data.keys() if column not in VALID_COLUMNS
    ]
    
    if invalid_columns:
        raise ValueError(
            f"Invalid columns detected: {', '.join(invalid_columns)}"
        )  # Shows WHICH columns are invalid

data = {'name': 'John', 'gender': 'Pangender', 
        'age': 47, 'email': 'john@example.com'}
process_API_information(data) Detection Semi-Automatic [x] This is a semantic smell. You can warn the developers on error texts that do not include variables. Tags Errors Level Beginner [x] AI Assistants AI assistants usually miss this kind of help and provide hardcoded error messages. Conclusion You need to always think about how to help your end users. It might be yourself. Relations Code Smell 104 - Assert True Code Smell 97 - Error Messages Without Empathy Disclaimer Code Smells are my . opinion Credits Photo by on Brett Jordan Unsplash Information shared by an object might or might not be part of the structure of that object. That is, the object might compute the information, or it might delegate the request for information to another object. Rebecca Wirfs Brooks Software Engineering Great Quotes This article is part of the CodeSmell Series. How to Find the Stinky Parts of your Code

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Code Smell 244 - Incomplete Error Information and How to Fix It

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Maximiliano Contieri

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Code Smell 244 - Incomplete Error Information and How to Fix It

Too Long; Didn't Read

Maximiliano Contieri

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

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