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Inappropriate coding practices - Unnecessary imports

Need​

Elimination of unnecessary imports to improve code efficiency and reduce resource consumption

Context​

  • Usage of Swift for iOS and macOS app development
  • Usage of UIKit for building modern and responsive user interfaces
  • Usage of Foundation for building responsive and accessible web interfaces
  • Usage of CoreData for data persistence and management in iOS development
  • Usage of MapKit for integrating Apple Maps functionality into an application

Description​

Non compliant code​

import UIKit
import Foundation
import CoreData
import MapKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
    }

}

In this Swift code snippet, we have imported four modules: UIKit, Foundation, CoreData, and MapKit. These modules are imported at the top of the file, right after the import statements.

However, in the ViewController class, we are not using anything from the CoreData and MapKit modules. Therefore, these modules are unnecessarily imported, which increases the load of the application.

The CoreData module is used for managing the model layer objects in our application, and MapKit is used for embedding maps directly into our own application windows. But since we are not using any of these functionalities in our ViewController, these imports are not needed and are considered as inappropriate coding practices.

This unnecessary importing of modules can lead to slower load times and increased memory usage, which can negatively impact the performance of the application.

Steps​

  • Identify and remove any unnecessary import statements in the code.
  • Review the code and determine which modules are actually used.
  • Remove the import statements for modules that are not used in the code.
  • Ensure that the code still compiles and functions correctly after removing the unnecessary imports.

Compliant code​

import UIKit
import Foundation

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
    }

}

In the original code, there were unnecessary import statements for CoreData and MapKit. These modules were not used anywhere in the code, thus importing them was unnecessary and could potentially increase the load time of the application.

The fixed code above only imports the modules that are actually used: UIKit and Foundation. This is a better practice as it only loads the modules that are needed for the code to function, thus potentially reducing the load time and memory usage of the application.

It's important to always review the code and remove any unnecessary imports. This not only improves the performance of the application but also makes the code cleaner and easier to maintain. Always ensure that the code still compiles and functions correctly after removing the unnecessary imports.

References​

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