Why is "feature envy" considered as a code smell? What problems does it create when we have feature envy in our code base?

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1.33/5 (3 votes)

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Posted 20-Jan-15 10:32am

Naser Hassan

Updated 20-Jan-15 10:34am

v2

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ZurdoDev 20-Jan-15 16:52pm

What?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 20-Jan-15 19:26pm

The question is quite bad, but the notions mentioned do make a lot of sense.
We already have one answer.
—SA

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User 59241 · Answer 1 · 2015-01-20T13:12:00

Solution 2

Here is an explanation of "feature envy":
http://sourcemaking.com/refactoring/feature-envy[^]

and here:
http://eclipse-metrics.sourceforge.net/descriptions/pages/FeatureEnvy.html[^]

And here "code smell"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell[^]

As Andreas has pointed out it breaks encapsulation and is an indicator of poor design and discipline in the code.

[Edit] The problems it creates are canvassed here:
http://www.whitewashing.de/2014/08/11/spotting_featureenvy_and_refactoring.html[^]

and here under "Feature envy Why do we care.":
https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/exploring-smelly-code/[^]

Posted 20-Jan-15 13:12pm

User 59241

Updated 20-Jan-15 14:42pm

v4

Comments

Andreas Gieriet 20-Jan-15 19:32pm

My 5!
Cheers
Andi

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 20-Jan-15 20:20pm

Agree, my 5, too.
—SA

[no name] 21-Jan-15 0:10am

Thanks SA. Your vote is not visible?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 21-Jan-15 0:23am

I voted, don't worry. These days, some votes are not shown due to some problems. I see this problem when I vote and then reload page. The votes does count on the scores, but not shown.
—SA

[no name] 21-Jan-15 0:10am

Thanks

Andreas Gieriet · Answer 2 · 2015-01-20T12:08:00

Solution 1

See What is a "feature envy" code and why is it considered a code smell?[^]:
[...] because it breaks encapsulation. [...]
Cheers
Andi

Posted 20-Jan-15 12:08pm

Andreas Gieriet

v2

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 20-Jan-15 20:19pm

Hi Andi.
I think "breaks encapsulation" is one of the possible aspects of the problem, but the link is useful; I voted 4 this time.
—SA

Andreas Gieriet 20-Jan-15 20:25pm

Thanks for your 4. I think this is the main code smell.
Cheers
Andi