Question

The following methods are implemented in an abstract base class, that is extended by many subclasses:

public final void doSomething() {
    if( hasBehavior1() ) {
        // special behavior 
    }

    if( hasBehavior2() ) {
        // special behavior 
    }

    // do other things
}

protected abstract boolean hasBehavior1();
protected abstract boolean hasBehavior2();

How should I name these methods hasBehaviorX() for the cases that the special behavior is

• to encrypt some data?
• to ignore an error?
• to check for correctness?

The special behavior is too easy to use a different implementation pattern like the strategy pattern, so I’m really looking for some useful naming conventions here.

Answer 1

I found a way to express the special behavior by using the java conventions for boolean members with the verb in its present progressive form:

isEncrypting()
isIgnoringError()
isCheckingForCorrectness()