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Duplicate Consolidation inside Visual Studio

December 20th, 2011

The process of removing duplicate code is called code consolidation. The result of code consolidation is a single code block that replaces a specific duplicated code in several locations (different files or projects). The resulting consolidated code block is functionally absolutely the same as all duplicated code blocks it replaces.

To apply the code consolidation, you can use the Consolidate Code provider. It is available when the editor caret is positioned at a Duplicate Code issue via the CodeRush popup menu:

CodeRush Consolidation Popup Menu

or through the Code Issues visual hints, such as Code Fix hint:

CodeRush Duplicate Detection and Consolidation Code Fix Hint

and the document bar hint:

CodeRush Consolidation Document Bar Hint

If the Consolidate Code provider is not available, you can see why it is not available in the Code Fix hint by hovering over the “Why?” link:

CodeRush Code Fix Hint Why Not Available link

If you think that duplicated code can be consolidated, click the “Report Issue” link to provide feedback about your expectations:

CodeRush Code Fix Hint Report Issue link

Once clicked, a special dialog appear for submitting feedback:

CodeRush Help Us Improve Duplicate Consolidation Dialog

Consolidation locations

Code consolidation allows you to consolidate code at different locations. The code consolidation will suggest only an appropriate code location, such as:

  • the current class – if duplicate code blocks are residing in a single type
  • the base class – if duplicate code blocks are residing in a single class hierarchy
  • a new ancestor class – if duplicate code blocks are residing in types that can be inherited from a new ancestor
  • the helper class – if duplicate code blocks are residing in different classes that do not have a common ancestor and a new ancestor cannot be created
  • the existing class, where previous consolidation has been performed

You may also have different project location options: for the ‘helper class’ and ‘new ancestor class’ locations, it is possible to choose whether to use the current project (if duplicate code blocks are residing in a single project) or create a new one (if duplicate code blocks are residing in different projects), so source projects will reference a newly created project:

CodeRush Consolidation preview (New Helper Class)

If duplicate code blocks are residing in different projects and those projects reference other common projects, you can choose one of the referenced projects to create a helper class in it and move the consolidated code there. Once you have consolidated any duplicated code in a particular class (inside the current, new, or referenced project), you can choose that class as a target location when consolidating the next duplicated code.

Preview hint

As you have already seen, hovering over the target location for consolidation in the Code Fix hint or CodeRush Popup menu, will show you a preview hint with the changes being made to the current code and the visual diagram of the duplicated and consolidated code hierarchy:

CodeRush Consolidation preview hint

Depending on the duplicate code block count, their location (classes and projects) and target location for the consolidated code, the hint will reflect and correspond to these parameters.

Consolidation in action

For example, a duplicated code may vary by different values used. Consider the following simple example of the duplicated code – it is not real, but it may show how consolidation works here:

Duplicate Code Sample #1

Duplicate Code Sample #2

These two methods do the same thing: inside the ‘for’ and ‘foreach’ loops it writes several lines with certain values to the Console. However, note the differences in the values and their different positions inside the code, e.g. passing “1 + 2 + 3” and “2 + 3 + 1” as arguments. Consolidating such code will require replacing all differences in values to parameters and pass the correct values as arguments to the resulting method. Also, because the parameters of two duplicate code blocks have different types they should be consolidated to a common type, if possible. In this specific case, the common type for both parameters will be the System.IEnumerable type. Here’s the resulting consolidated code:

CodeRush Consolidation Result declaration

and the calling sides:

CodeRush Consolidation Result calling sides

This is a just simple example with local differences, but there can be also other things involved in code duplicates, such as different member references (dependencies), different types of parameters and fields, different project boundaries, etc. So, the consolidation task is rather really complex, with lots of edge cases. The CodeRush Consolidation Engine can deal with all of these differences and create a single code that functionally is the same as all replaced duplicated code blocks. If the code consolidation is not yet capable of removing a specific duplicated code, you can always send feedback to DevExpress by clicking the “Report issue” link, so the Consolidation Engine will be improved in the future.

Want to learn more?

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Products: CodeRush Pro
Versions: 11.2 and up
VS IDEs: any
Updated: Dec/20/2011
ID: C151

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