UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS: Learn advanced Swift and SwiftUI on Hacking with Swift+! >>

How many parameters should a function accept?

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Updated for Xcode 15

At first glance, this question seems like “how long is a piece of a string?” That is, it’s something where there is no real, hard answer – a function could take no parameters or take 20 of them.

That’s certainly true, but when a function takes many parameters – perhaps six or more, but this is extremely subjective – you need to start asking whether that function is perhaps doing a bit too much work.

  • Does it need all six of those parameters?
  • Could that function be split up into smaller functions that take fewer parameters?
  • Should those parameters be grouped somehow?

We’ll look at some techniques for solving this later on, but there’s an important lesson to be learned here: this is called a “code smell” – something about our code that suggests an underlying problem in the way we’ve structured our program.

Hacking with Swift is sponsored by RevenueCat

SPONSORED Take the pain out of configuring and testing your paywalls. RevenueCat's Paywalls allow you to remotely configure your entire paywall view without any code changes or app updates.

Learn more here

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

BUY OUR BOOKS
Buy Pro Swift Buy Pro SwiftUI Buy Swift Design Patterns Buy Testing Swift Buy Hacking with iOS Buy Swift Coding Challenges Buy Swift on Sundays Volume One Buy Server-Side Swift Buy Advanced iOS Volume One Buy Advanced iOS Volume Two Buy Advanced iOS Volume Three Buy Hacking with watchOS Buy Hacking with tvOS Buy Hacking with macOS Buy Dive Into SpriteKit Buy Swift in Sixty Seconds Buy Objective-C for Swift Developers Buy Beyond Code

Was this page useful? Let us know!

Average rating: 4.8/5

 
Unknown user

You are not logged in

Log in or create account
 

Link copied to your pasteboard.