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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:40:53 -0600
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:41:06 -0800
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
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Subject: Re: multi-line Strings
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On 12/17/2012 6:51 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
...
> TWO fails to achieve any of those. It is far from given that all
> constants of 2 must be changes. TWO does not tell any more than 2.
>
> if(daysPaymentOverdue() > 2) {
>     setAlarmLevel(2);
> }
>
> should not be converted to:
>
> if(daysPaymentOverdue() > TWO) {
>     setAlarmLevel(TWO);
> }
>
> but to:
>
> if(daysPaymentOverdue() > NO_DAYS_TO_SET_ALARM) {
>     setAlarmLevel(ALARM_NO_PAYMENT);
> }

I think a good test for deciding to name a constant is whether the
constant would have a better name than the number itself. It has nothing
to do with how big a number is, but with what it means.

For example, 2 in the Euclidean distance formula just means 2, and has
no better name. Similarly, 100 in the formula for calculating a
percentage is just 100.

On the other hand, each 2 in the example above does not just mean 2. It
is a number of days, or an alarm level, and can be given a more
meaningful name. If the example had used 1 instead of 2, I would still
agree with naming it.

Patricia