| Goal | A Boolean parameter may be used to determine what task to fulfill. In this case the routine has multiple tasks and does not satisfy the separation of concerns principle. |
|---|---|
| Notes | Refers to the column pg_proc.prokind and thus works starting from PostgreSQL 11. There could be Boolean parameters for other reasons than being flag parameters. There could be multiple routines with the same name but with different parameters in the same schema (overloading). Thus, for the unique identification of the routine it is necessary to present also its parameters in addition to the schema name and routine name. The query does not consider the routines that are a part of an extension. In the returned body of routine the query replaces each newline character with the line break (br) tag for the better readability in case the query result is displayed in a web browser. |
| Type | Problem detection (Each row in the result could represent a flaw in the design) |
| Reliability | Low (Many false-positive results) |
| License | MIT (opens in new tab) |
| Fixing Suggestion | Get rid of the flag parameters by dropping the original routine and creating multiple routines, each of which has a more specific task. |
| Data Source | INFORMATION_SCHEMA+system catalog |
| SQL Query |
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Categories
This query is classified under the following categories:
Comfortability of database evolution
Queries of this category provide information about the means that influence database evolution.
Does not work in some earlier PostgreSQL version
Queries of this category provide information that was not available in some earlier PostgreSQL version
User-defined routines
Queries of this category provide information about the user-defined routines
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Comfortability of database evolution | Queries of this category provide information about the means that influence database evolution. |
| Does not work in some earlier PostgreSQL version | Queries of this category provide information that was not available in some earlier PostgreSQL version |
| User-defined routines | Queries of this category provide information about the user-defined routines |
Further reading and related materials:
The corresponding code smells in case of cleaning code are "F3: Flag Arguments" and "G15: Selector Arguments". (Robert C. Martin, Clean Code)
| Reference |
|---|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns |
| The corresponding code smells in case of cleaning code are "F3: Flag Arguments" and "G15: Selector Arguments". (Robert C. Martin, Clean Code) |