In my previous post, I mentioned that I let Eclipse add final statements everywhere in my code. I initially was reluctant to this idea.
Then I came to work on a piece of code which was heavily dealing with string processing. The temptation to re-use a variable and assign a different string to it several times, as the processing was happening, was really high. Using the final keyword forced me to declare a new variable each time. The great benefit was that I had to create new variable name each time, thus making the code clearer in its intention.
Hence, using only final variables makes the code stricter and cleaner. Moreover it is a safety net for the days when I am sloppy: final variables give me the big no-no if I feel inclined to repurpose one of them!
In Clean Code Uncle Bob advocates against such a systematic use of the final keyword for the reason it creates too much visual clutter. I agree with him though you quickly tend to visually ignore these keywords. Scala has solved the cluttering issue elegantly thanks to specific declaration keywords instead of a modifier (val for values and var for variable).
Did I just say Scala?
