Question

I have a class named ActivityLog. This class holds a list of ActivityRecords. I want to return a list of ActivityRecords by these criterias: Environment and Condition. Should the method name include the “criteria”? See example:

activityLog.allRecords();
activityLog.allRecordsBy(Environment environment);
activityLog.allRecordsBy(Condition condition);
activityLog.allRecordsBy(Condition condition, Environment environment);

or

activityLog.allRecordsByEnvironment(Environment environment);
activityLog.allRecordsByCondtion(Condition condition);

I probably think the first is better because you will read the method name and you will understand from the parameter what it does, but I may be wrong? Which is the best, or are there even better alternatives?

I could have named the methods records(), recordsBy etc. too, but I want to have a consitency through my API where you always start writing all for lists of objects so you get help from for example Intelli Sense.

Answer 1

I like putting the criteria in the actual method name. So I would use:

activityLog.allRecordsByEnvironment(Environment environment);

To me proper method naming expresses a small summary of what the method does. Since the parameters are included in the method signature I would not consider the parameters to be part of the actual name, therefore not placing the criteria in the name gives the user of an api incomplete information about the methods functionality. (IMO)

I applaud your effort to practice self documenting code, great practice.