• Replace magic number with a named constant. This applies to strings and other types as well.

• Rename a variable with a more informative name. Short (one letter) names are OK for loop variables, but not much else. Avoid abbreviations.

• Introduce explanatory variable - if you have a long expression used as part of a statement, consider breaking it apart and assigning it to an intermediate variable that explains what it is.

• Eliminate Duplicate Code - move it to a separate method, a superclass, or a mixin. Sometimes duplicate code is caused by some work being done by the wrong object. For example, many views in “KU Polls” containing code to find a user’s vote instead of a method in the Vote class to do that.

• Eliminate Unnecessary “else”. When the “then” part of an “if” statements causes a return from a function or method, you do not need the following “else”. The same applies to “try - except” blocks in Python.

  # in a Person class
  def __eq__(self, other) -> bool:
      if not isinstance(other, self.__class__):
          return False
      else:    <-- NOT NEEDED. REMOVE IT.
          return self.name == other.name and self.id == other.id
  

• Move Method - if a method is using data or other methods from another class (not a superclass) more than its own class, it probably should be moved to the other class. This is the Information Expert principle.

• Extract Method - if a method is long or appears to be doing more than one thing, try to extract a coherent block of code to another method. This may also improve your ability to test the code.