Code Smell¶
A code smell refers to any characteristic or symptom in source code that indicates a potential problem or violation of good programming practices. It is a metaphorical term used to describe code that may not be structured optimally or may be prone to bugs, maintainability issues, or other software development problems. Code smells are subjective indicators and do not necessarily indicate a bug or an error in the code, but they highlight areas that may require attention and refactoring.
Long methods, duplicate code are code smells.
Code smells are not strict rules or errors but rather indicators of areas that may need improvement. Recognizing and addressing code smells early in the development process can lead to cleaner, more maintainable, and bug-free code. Automated code analysis tools and code reviews can be helpful in identifying code smells and promoting better coding practices.
See also What Are Code Smells in PHP? An OOP Approach for Cleaner Code, Code Smells