Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Well done!
You have completed Structuring Your Code!
You have completed Structuring Your Code!
Preview
Take your code to the next level by reviewing your work and optimizing your code.
KISS, or keep it simple silly, is a popular acronym to remember that simple is usually better.
Refactoring is the process by which you improve existing code.
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
If you've been reading up on
how to improve your code,
0:00
you've probably seen
this acronym all ready.
0:04
KISS or keep it simple silly, helps
developers write code that is easier for
0:07
others to understand,
including future you.
0:12
It's a common problem for
developers to come back to their
0:16
own projects in the future, and
not be able to read their own code.
0:20
One important note,
KISS doesn't always mean less code,
0:25
it just means more simple code.
0:31
You can do some pretty cool and
complicated things with programming.
0:34
But if it takes a paragraph of code
comments to describe what's happening,
0:38
your code may be too complicated.
0:42
And there may be times when you can't
simplify a complicated piece of code, and
0:45
that's okay.
0:49
Just tackle the areas you can, and
0:50
add comments to help
describe what's happening.
0:53
Let's check this out with some code.
0:56
If you haven't already,
open the KISS file to follow along.
1:00
Here we have some code
that needs tweaking.
1:04
I've listed out a few common ways
developers overcomplicate their code.
1:07
The first complication that comes to
my attention, is over commenting.
1:13
Don't get me wrong, I love code comments.
1:18
And I wish developers use them more,
but you can go too far.
1:22
Use code comments to describe elements of
your code that aren't easy to understand,
1:27
just by reading through your code.
1:32
This will make it easier for
other developers to understand, and
1:34
use code that you've written.
1:38
Let's go through and remove
the unnecessary code comments in our file.
1:41
Line 4, can go.
1:46
It states what we already see,
that this variable holds the number 5.
1:50
I don't think that this is a piece of
code, that would be too complicated for
1:55
another developer to figure out.
2:00
The next set of code comments can be
easily remedied by improving the name of
2:02
the function.
2:06
Naming function is something descriptive,
is a good habit to get into.
2:07
Let's remove the comments, and
2:12
rename the function to something
like check greater than 10.
2:14
This is much more descriptive.
2:18
Inside of this function, is another set
of code comments that aren't necessary.
2:34
Since the code isn't complicated
enough to keep them.
2:39
These are the kinds of comments I might
write when building a project, and
2:43
then remove once it's finished.
2:47
Really the only code comments
I might keep, is for
2:53
the larger go_to_movies function.
2:57
Since this function is larger,
it will make it easier for
3:00
others to know what this function does,
right off the back.
3:03
I just need to remove the first line,
since it's redundant.
3:07
The rest of the comments can go.
3:14
Nice work.
3:31
Let's tackle the next hurdle.
3:33
Back at the top in our check
greater than 10 function,
3:35
we can simplify this logic
into one line like this.
3:40
Magic, right?
3:53
Don't forget that comparisons already
give you a true or false response.
3:54
So you can just return the value instead.
4:01
Comparison logic can be powerful,
but also easily forgotten.
4:04
Next, let's tackle the large code block
inside of the go_to _movies function.
4:09
When it comes to functions,
4:15
it's typically easier to commit to one
task per function for readability.
4:17
Now, there may be times
when this isn't possible,
4:23
but that's where comments can
come into play to help you out.
4:27
Let's break the info
here into two functions.
4:31
One to choose our movie,
4:34
and the second,
to get our snacks. Then go_to_movies
4:39
can utilize these new functions and
print out the message.
4:47
Let's call the first function,
random_movie, and return the chosen movie.
4:52
We can cut
5:08
and paste, and then return our movie.
5:15
In go_to_movies,
we can now call this function and
5:22
save the result in a variable
called movie_choice.
5:25
The second function can
be called buy_snacks.
5:35
It will need a money parameter.
5:47
Let's move the logic
into this new function,
5:50
and then return our purchase snacks.
5:53
Inside of go_to_movies, we can use
a variable called purchased_snacks.
6:22
To save the value of
the buy_snacks function.
6:32
Don't forget to pass in the money
argument, to your new function.
6:37
Now, this code block is
a lot more readable.
6:43
The last section here,
includes nested for loops.
6:56
Nesting loops may not seem like
a big deal with small data sets,
7:01
but the larger your data set gets,
7:05
the longer this double
looping is going to take.
7:08
When you run this in the console.
7:11
You can see that it first grabs
one of the dictionaries, and
7:19
then each key value pair.
7:24
Can you imagine if you had
to work through 1000 pets,
7:26
this double looping could take a while and
would really slow down your program.
7:30
Let's keep this to one loop and
print out each attribute here instead.
7:36
It's common to write more code than you
need, especially when new to programming.
8:08
That's why it's always good to
review your code and old projects.
8:14
Great job tackling some common ways
to make your code more simple.
8:18
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up