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The best coding practices are necessary on large projects, because often the developer has no option to discuss the current issues with the colleagues. When the project exists for many years, developers come and go, and every newcomer has to spend some time to learn the project. If the code is complex, unclear, repetitive, the time of on boarding extends. So, the best code practices are necessary to keep the large projects live. For small projects, the best practices are also helpful but not as critical.
In this article, you can find the best coding practices for Java.
The Main Points About Java Best Practices
You can start using the best code practices for Java at the process of learning. Of all the available online platforms, the decision to learn Java on CodeGym will help you learn and practice Core Java. If you try to make your code simple, clean and easy from the very beginning, it will be helpful in your career.
3 Programming Principles of the Best Practices
To develop a good code, you need these programming principles:
● KISS: This represents Keep It Simple. A common thing with developers when they are just starting their carrier is that they implement ambiguous and complex designs.
● DRY: It represents Don’t Repeat Yourself. Always avoid repetition and duplicates.
● YAGNI: Stands for You Ain’t Gonna Need It. You might want to consider having a re-think whenever you are in doubt or unsure about a code or feature. Sometimes it is better to reject it than waste time for the development and implementation.
Code Quality
Keeping your applications stable and secure throughout the development process is very important. Here’s a summary of the effects of a poor source code quality:
● It becomes difficult to add new features, and this can break the existing ones. Also, it increases the need for bug fixes which can be time-consuming.
● Onboarding new developers will not find it easy, especially if the code base is hard to read and understand.
● User’s perception of a product can be negatively affected if the source code quality is bad.
A good strategy will be required to achieve this, and adhering to this strategy is key. It should include:
● Coding conventions
● Code review
● Unit tests
● Test-driven development
● Pair programming
● Other modern practices
Even if your team does not use all of them, you should know about these practices to improve your code.
Performance
Developing an application quickly and making it functional are two important things. For both to be possible, developers must know some of the common performance issues so that they can avoid them where necessary.
Database Issues:
● N + 1 select – trap of incomprehensible lazy fetching strategy
● No cache – Getting content from memory is faster compared to database
● Lack of sufficient size of pool connections
Memory Problems:
● Out of memory and memory leaks error.
● Garbage collection procedure takes longer than necessary and occurs frequently.
Concurrency Problems:
● Thread gridlocks
● Thread deadlocks
Other Useful Points and Tricks
Here are some other useful points and tricks that can come in handy for you.
Packages
This is a mechanism that helps in placing Java classes in groups, especially those that are related. Grouping Java classes into different packages will make it easier for you to identify a class when you need it. Java packages work like directories, in which similar packages are placed in the same directory, and they may have sub-packages.
Exception Handling
Exception Handling will allow your applications to sensibly handle errors. This is an important aspect of writing strong Java components and applications, but it is usually neglected. The way exceptions are handled matters a lot, and errors in Java programs usually occur when an exception is thrown.
Deployment Server
Application servers help in supporting service implementation as well as the creation of dynamic pages. Some of the commonly used servers for Java include JBoss, Geronimo, GlassFish, Tomcat, and WebSphere.
Authorization and Authentication
Since applications are created with Frameworks, configuring access authentication becomes easy. These Frameworks provide security solutions to handle authorization and authentication, usually available at method invocation and web request levels.
Unit and Integration Testing
This will help you verify if the behavior and logging of the source code are correct. Unit testing will also help you identify bugs and software regressions. High test coverage will help you reduce the number of manual tests you’ll have to perform as you implement different features.
Build and Deployment
Build tools will help to improve your efficiency. With these tools, you can build applications quickly.
We have highlighted all the recommendations and points that you should pay attention to as you build your Java experience. Remember that the knowledge of Java itself makes you a java developer, but the knowledge of excellent practices makes you an excellent Java developer. We hope that the information in this article will improve your skills and help you advance your career.