PointlessForwardingMethod.qhelp

<!DOCTYPE qhelp PUBLIC
  "-//Semmle//qhelp//EN"
  "qhelp.dtd">
<qhelp>
<overview>
<p>
If a class contains two distinct methods of the same name such that:</p>
<ol><li>One method is only ever called from the other method.</li>
<li>The calling method calls only the other method and nothing else.</li></ol>
<p>
Then the first method is no more than a forwarding method for the second and the two methods can 
probably be merged.</p> 

<p>
There are several
advantages to doing this:
</p>

<ul>
<li>It reduces the cognitive overhead involved in keeping track of the various different overloaded forms of a method.</li>
<li>If both methods are public, it simplifies the API of their containing class, making it more discoverable to other programmers.</li>
<li>It makes it clearer to other programmers that certain methods are called and other methods are not.</li>
</ul>

</overview>
<example>
<p>In this example, the two <code>print</code> methods in <code>Bad</code> can be merged, as one is simply a forwarder for the other. The two classes <code>Better1</code> and <code>Better2</code> 
show two alternative ways of merging the methods.</p>

<sample src="PointlessForwardingMethod.java" /></example>
</qhelp>