Duplicate Method Call

Introduction

Duplication occurs when two fragments of code look nearly identical, or when two fragments of code have nearly identical effects at some conceptual level. reek implements a check for Duplicate Method Call.

Example

Here's a very much simplified and contrived example. The following method will report a warning:

def double_thing()
  @other.thing + @other.thing
end

One quick approach to silence Reek would be to refactor the code thus:

def double_thing()
  thing = @other.thing
  thing + thing
end

A slightly different approach would be to replace all calls of double_thing by calls to @other.double_thing:

class Other
  def double_thing()
    thing + thing
  end
end

The approach you take will depend on balancing other factors in your code.

Current support in reek

reek's Duplicate Method Call detector checks for repeated identical method calls within any one method definition. This is intended to complement the checks performed by tools such as Flay and Simian.

Configuration

Reek's Duplication detector currently offers the Basic Smell Options, plus:

Option Value Effect
max_calls integer The maximum number of duplicate calls allowed within a method. Defaults to 1.