How to Eliminate Duplicate Code in Java: A Guide for Scopa Game Development

Discover effective strategies to `reduce code duplication` in your Java projects, specifically in card game development. Our step-by-step guide will help you streamline your codebase for better maintenance and clarity.
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How to Eliminate Duplicate Code in Java: A Guide for Scopa Game Development

Creating a card game like Scopa can be exciting, but it often comes with the challenge of writing efficient, maintainable code. A common issue developers face is code duplication—where similar logic is repeated across multiple methods. This not only makes your code harder to read and maintain but can also lead to increased bugs if a change needs to be made in multiple places. In this guide, we will explore how to eliminate duplicate code in your Scopa game’s logic seamlessly.

The Problem: Duplicated Logic

In the provided code snippet, we notice there are several methods that implement nearly identical logic to determine scores for players based on different criteria:

Total cards

Total sevens

Total spades

Specific card (the seven of spades)

Each method contains a loop that goes through the players and applies specific logic to count items based on certain conditions. Here’s a brief look at one of the methods to illustrate the problem:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

As you can see, a similar structure is repeated in each method, which is unnecessary and can lead to potential errors.

The Solution: Consolidating Functions

Using a Common Method

Instead of having separate methods for each counting criteria, we can create a single method that accepts a predicate. This predicate will define the condition for counting the cards, allowing us to reduce redundancy significantly.

Implementation Steps

Create a Generalized Method:
We define a method called playerWithMostCardsMatching that takes a Predicate<Card> as an argument. This predicate will dictate the counting logic based on the caller's needs.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Refactor Score Updates:
Now, we can simplify the updateScores method to call our new, generalized method with different predicates for different criteria.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Benefits of This Approach

Reduced Code Duplication: The logic for determining the scoring player is centralized, making it easier to maintain and debug.

Enhanced Readability: With fewer lines of duplicated logic, your code is cleaner and easier to follow.

Improved Flexibility: The use of predicates allows for flexible future expansions, should new criteria need to be added.

Conclusion

By consolidating similar methods into a single, flexible function, you can greatly reduce the duplication in your Java code. This not only improves maintainability but also enhances the overall structure of your application. As you continue your development journey with your Scopa game, remember that clean, reusable code will save you time and effort in the long run. If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts on the naming conventions in the provided example, we’d love to hear from you!