Question

I’m having an argument with my colleague. When overloading two methods, is it considered bad practice for the one with more parameters to call the one with fewer parameters?

For example:

method (P p1, P p2, P p3) {
       <do something with p1 and p2 => newP>;
       method (newP, p3);
}
method (P p1, P p2) {
       ....
}

Answer 1

Overload chaining like this is a common practice (in particular with constructors) – I wouldn’t call it bad, though it can be abused like most language features.

As far as it reduces code duplication, it is a good practice. Most of the time, I find it is also more readable.

I would say that using this technique is a matter of personal opinion and style rather than absolute good or bad practice.