Inappropriate coding practices - Unused properties
Need
Elimination of unused properties in the codebase
Context
- Usage of Go 1.16 for building high-performance and scalable applications
- Usage of gin-gonic/gin for building web applications in Go
Description
Non compliant code
package main
import (
"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)
type User struct {
Name string
Email string
UnusedProp string
}
func main() {
r := gin.Default()
r.GET("/user/:name", func(c *gin.Context) {
name := c.Param("name")
user := User{Name: name, Email: "[email protected]"}
c.JSON(200, gin.H{
"user": user.Name,
"email": user.Email,
})
})
r.Run()
}
In the above Go code, we have a User struct that defines three properties: Name, Email, and UnusedProp. However, in our main function, where we define a GET endpoint to retrieve a user by name, we only use the Name and Email properties of the User struct.
The UnusedProp property is never used in our code, which adds unnecessary complexity to our application. Even though it doesn't directly hurt the performance of the application, it can potentially lead to confusion for other developers maintaining or enhancing the code, and can be a source of bugs if it's mistakenly used in the future.
Moreover, from a resource perspective, each instance of the User struct will consume more memory than needed, which could have a substantial impact on the performance and resource usage of the application if we create a large number of User instances.
Steps
- Identify and remove any unused properties in the code.
- Review the codebase to ensure that all properties are being used appropriately.
- Consider refactoring the code to remove any unnecessary complexity.
- Test the application to ensure that it functions correctly after removing the unused properties.
Compliant code
package main
import (
"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
)
type User struct {
Name string
Email string
}
func main() {
r := gin.Default()
r.GET("/user/:name", func(c *gin.Context) {
name := c.Param("name")
user := User{Name: name, Email: "[email protected]"}
c.JSON(200, gin.H{
"user": user.Name,
"email": user.Email,
})
})
r.Run()
}
The original code had a struct User with an unused property UnusedProp. This unused property was adding unnecessary complexity to the code and could potentially affect the overall performance of the application.
In the fixed code, the UnusedProp property has been removed from the User struct. This simplifies the struct and ensures that there are no unused properties in the code.
The rest of the code remains the same. The main function sets up a default gin router, defines a GET route /user/:name, and starts the server. The GET route handler function retrieves the name parameter from the route, creates a User with the retrieved name and a static email "[email protected]", and returns a JSON response with the user and email.
After removing the unused property, it's important to test the application to ensure that it still functions as expected.