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principles:don_t_repeat_yourself

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Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)

Variants and Alternative Names

  • Single Point of Truth (SPOT)
  • Single Source of Truth (SSOT)

Context

Definition

“Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.”1)

Description

DRY not only states that code duplication shall be avoided. Rather DRY is a general rule that states that if there is duplication, there shall be some “single source of truth”. Also when one piece of information has several representations (like an object structure corresponding to a database schema) DRY demands one and only one representation being the definitive one. The other representations have to be generated automatically. The “one and only” representation can be one of the used representations or alternatively a third one.

Rationale

If there are several representations of the same information (be it code or any other form of information), all of them have to be maintained separately while changing at the same time. There is the danger that at some point in time the different representations diverge which is a fault. But if there is a single source of truth, there is only one place where changes have to be applied. Then the representations cannot diverge.

Origin

Evidence

Accepted: It is generally agreed upon that code duplication is to be avoided. On the other hand the broader meaning of DRY which results in the heavy use of code generators is often not considered.

Relations to Other Principles

Generalizations

Specializations

  • Once And Only Once: This is the aspect of DRY which is concerned with the avoidance of (code) duplication.

Contrary Principles

Complementary Principles

Principle Collections

Example

Description Status

Further Reading

1)
Andrew Hunt and David Thomas: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master; see List of Tips.
principles/don_t_repeat_yourself.1630576016.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021-09-02 11:46 by 65.21.179.175