Code Smell – Bad Smell in Code : Understanding Primitive Obsession

-Use of primitives instead of small objects for simple tasks (such as currency, ranges, special strings for phone numbers, etc.)
-Use of string constants as field names for use in data arrays.
-Use of constants for coding information (As for example, a constant ADMIN_ROLE = 1 for referring to users with administrator rights.)

Primitives are often used to “simulate” types. So instead of a separate data type, you have a set of numbers or strings that form the list of allowable values for some entity. Easy-to-understand names are then given to these specific numbers and strings via constants, which is why they’re spread wide and far.

Like most other smells, primitive obsessions are born in moments of weakness. “Just a field for storing some data!” the programmer said. Creating a primitive field is so much easier than making a whole new class, right? And so it was done. Then another field was needed and added in the same way. Lo and behold, the class became huge and unwieldy.

Solution

If you have a large variety of primitive fields, it may be possible to logically group some of them into their own class. Even better, move the behavior associated with this data into the class too. For this task, try Replace Data Value with Object.