Ensuring that your code is consistent with other parts of the project is crucial, as it helps improve the readability and maintainability of the codebase. Let’s look at a concrete example to illustrate how this can be achieved.

Old Code Example

Suppose we are working on the user management module of an e-commerce application. Below is the old code for the user registration functionality:

class UserManagement:
    def adduser(self, username, email):
        if self.check_user_exists(username):
            print("User already exists.")
        else:
            self.insert_user_to_db(username, email)
 
    def check_user_exists(self, user_name):
        # Simulate database query
        return user_name in ["alice", "bob"]
 
    def insert_user_to_db(self, user_name, user_email):
        # Simulate database insertion
        print(f"Inserting {user_name} with email {user_email}")

Code Issues

• Inconsistent Naming Conventions: The method names and parameter names are not consistent (e.g., adduser vs. check_user_exists, username vs. user_name).

• Error Handling: The code uses print statements for feedback instead of using exceptions or return values to handle errors.

• Unclear Method Responsibilities: The adduser method handles both user existence checks and the user insertion, making its responsibility unclear.

Project Best Practices

Assume the following best practices for the project:

• Use CamelCase for method names.

• Maintain consistent parameter naming.

• Handle errors using exceptions and proper logging.

• Separate logic so that each method is responsible for a single function.

Improved Code

import logging

# Configure logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format='%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s')

class UserManager:
    def addUser(self, username, email):
        if self.checkUserExists(username):
            logging.error("Attempt to register an existing user.")
            raise ValueError("User already exists.")
        else:
            self.insertUserToDB(username, email)
            logging.info(f"User {username} added successfully.")

    def checkUserExists(self, username):
        # Simulate database query
        return username in ["alice", "bob"]

    def insertUserToDB(self, username, email):
        # Simulate database insertion
        logging.info(f"Inserting {username} with email {email}")

Explanation of Improvements

1. Consistent Naming Conventions:
   All method names and parameters are changed to use CamelCase, ensuring consistency with other modules in the project.

2. Error Handling:
   Instead of using print statements, we now raise exceptions (ValueError) for error handling, which is more suitable for production code.

3. Logging:
   The logging module is used to log actions, providing more professional error handling and user action tracking, as opposed to simply printing to the console.

4. Separation of Responsibilities:
   Each method now has a single, clear responsibility: addUser handles adding the user, checkUserExists checks for existing users, and insertUserToDB inserts the user into the database. This makes the code more readable and maintainable.

By making these improvements, we not only enhance the style and structure of the code but also ensure that it is consistent with other parts of the project. This improves the overall quality of the project and boosts the development efficiency of the team.