Kotlin Code Smell 13 - Companion Object Functions
Yet another global access coupled with laziness that cannot be mocked.
I've started to work as a software engineer at 2014, however, I started to write code at high-school.
My first language was Assembly, but still, I fall in love with the possibilities to make the computer to do as you wish, shortly after that I started to write in C.
Later on I studied a practical engineering in electricity, and during this time discovered that I preferred much more writing code than design electrical components.
As a result of this understanding I decided to switch and study bachelor degree in computer science in Reichman university, where the focus was of the Java language.
Today I'm working at SumUp using Kotlin, SpringBoot & Micronaut, Cassandra and Kafka
TL;DR: Companion object functions are globally available and cannot be replaced for testing.
Problems
Coupling
Testability
Protocol Overloading
Cohesion
Solutions
Honor the Single Responsibility Principle by creating an instance for a class whenever possible.
Delegate the method to the instance, if feasible.
Create stateless objects instead of referring to them as "helpers."
Examples
Static class initializers
Static class methods
Static attributes
Sample Code
Wrong
class DateStringHelper {
companion object {
private val formatter =
DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd")
fun format(date: OffsetDateTime): String =
formatter.format(date)
}
}
fun main() {
print(DateStringHelper.format(OffsetDateTime.now()))
}
Right
class DateToStringFormatter(private val date: OffsetDateTime) {
fun englishFormat(): String {
val formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd")
return formatter.format(date)
}
}
fun main() {
print(DateToStringFormatter(OffsetDateTime.now()).englishFormat())
}
Conclusion
Using companion object methods pollutes the class protocol with "library methods," which breaks cohesion and generates coupling. It is advisable to extract them through refactorings.
We cannot manipulate companion classes and use them polymorphically, so we can't mock or test them effectively.
As a result, we end up with a globally accessible reference that is challenging to decouple.
