“Get” Stuffed

I never, ever, ever use the word “get” as part of a method or function name. Why? Consider the following function/method names:

-getStoryWithID: /* Calls a web service to return a string */
getPreferences() # Reads a preferences XML file from disk
getUserProfile() # Fetches user information from the Users table

If you’re among the college-bound you might have already noticed the problem: What the hell does “get” really mean? Does “get” mean make a network request? Does it mean that it hits the disk? Does it execute a SQL select? The problem is that “get” is way too general of a verb to use in programming — it could mean anything from a nearly instantaneous read from a register or a several-second long synchronous network request.

[Cocoa uses the verb get to mean “return by-reference in a pointer”, which is still pretty okay — but we wouldn’t need it if Objective-C had Python’s return tuple(1, 2); x, y = f()]

This problem is frequently compounded by using very generic nouns in method names. (Some of my least favorites are “status” and “progress”.) Combine this with function overloading in some of the world’s more regrettable programming languages and you get:

getProgress(int)
getProgress(Object)
getStatus(int)
getStatus(Object, float, int)

Even better, you can add doc comments:

/* * @function getStatus * @description Gets the status of an object. * @param status an object * @return Returns the status. */

Awesome.

(Inspired by this)

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Published:: 4.29.07 / 1pm

Category:: Programming

Hjalti 4.29.07 / 2pm

I only use get for accessors. I think that makes sense.

PatrickQG 4.29.07 / 2pm

If what you are interfacing with is well written, does it really matter what it does to “get” you what you ask for? -getStoryWithID: could easily be changed to do a SQL query. Why be more specific? Why you care what “get” actually means? How is that worse than, say, (on a story class) -find:? Perhaps just -storyWithID:?

Now progress/status… you make a solid point.

stuffonfire.com - “Get” Stuffed 4.29.07 / 2pm

[…] Today i read on stuffonfire.com» “Get” tuffed that the writer of that article (i did not find a name of the blogwriter yet ) doesn’t like to use “get” in object-methods. The author has some good reasons, why he does that. […]

Taybin 4.29.07 / 10pm

I don’t see what “get” has to do with the problem.

How is this better?
-storyWithID: preferences() userProfile()
?

David Young 4.29.07 / 11pm

You are free to substitute another verb in its place. I am have nothing against verbs.

Chris Hanson 4.30.07 / 3am

Actually, the “get” prefix has a very specific meaning in Cocoa-derived APIs: It means that you’re going to be passing in a location by reference where the result should be stored. For example, -[NSString getCString:maxLength:encoding:] requires you to pass a buffer into which it will place the result.

Following the conventions of an API is important when building additional frameworks and applications atop it.

Colin Barrett 5.1.07 / 12am

In addition to the Cocoa usage of “get”, I’ve seen another good one.

In Mozilla code, functions prefixed by Get return values that you need to null check. Conversely, functions that do not start with Get need no null checking.

At least, that’s the way it works in theory

To extend your original point, *any* words without real semantic meaning should be purged from you function names. Another particularly bad one I see a lot is including the name of the class in a method. -[Moo getMooSize:] is just silly.

Nehemiah 5.1.07 / 2pm

I think arron Hellegass (sorry i wrecked your name) wants us to “get” away from get as a desegnator of accessor methods. The idea here is that the “messages” we send are commands to an object NOT method names we are just calling.
size = string.getSize() is not as simple as size = [string size] sence you shouldn’t be accessing instance variables (or member variables) anyway. thats not the object oriented way.

J Nozzi 5.1.07 / 9pm

Guys (and gals?), you’re missing one big point: KVC and KVO (required to use Cocoa Bindings). Search your friendly documentation …

Jacob Rus 5.3.07 / 2am

Authors should really stop using “get” in their prose as well. There are many more specific substitute verbs in English. And precision is critical to well-written code and well-written text.

Ankur 5.6.07 / 10pm

The Digg API Framework now uses “fetch” prefix instead of “get”.

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“Get” Stuffed

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