#region == Failcode

This is a very old subject. But thanks to a way to motivated workmate, who used to drop “regions” in every code, we talked about this subject again. Are #regions good or not?

For all of you who don´t know what the hell Im talking about: #region on MSDN.

Let´s take a look on an example:

“…” stands for countless other stuff.

First impression:

Nice and tidy.

But serious…

Im interested in the Code not in any kind of blocks. With the use of #region the only thing you do is to shroud the code. When I open the user.cs I want to see the code on the first sight.

Yes, there is a hot key to make the code visual but why should I use this #region blocks?

Code Smell

Often I find some #regions in classes where the code consists of endless lines to give it a little bit more structure.

For example you open a method and find this:

I have the problem that I even so want to see the code. So I click to open it.

Fascinating…. but wait… what happens on Y?

Every good thing is three…. What´s written behind Z?

Fantastic isn´t it? Of course the code in my example is nonsense but in fact there could be kilometres of code behind X,Y and Z.

Why I think #regions is useless sense of order:

First fact: there is not a really advantage. Okay it looks nice on the first sight but in the end there is one possible conclusion:

There are too many responsibilities in this class and somebody try to hush this up. Better: Split it! And with this I didn´t mean into “Partial Classes” but into separate function units.

Interface Implementation:

Another example: Visual Studio always put interface implementations in #regions. I don´t think that´s nice (and its possible to stop it ). Is it really helpful for structure? In my opinion there are way better opportunities since VS2010. So I don´t need any #regions.

In addition…

If you are creating “On-the-fly” codes (e.g. with the TDD Manier), Visual studio used to place the code somewhere as well. That proofs that the system of #regions is to be doomed to failure anyway.

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2 Responses

1. 

   Phillip

   November 1, 2010

   If you’re using regions inside methods. Then your code fails because it’s obviously doing too much.

   But theres nothing wrong with using regions outside of methods to group stuff.

   Unless you group into ‘…’ which fails.

   Reply
2. 

   pete w

   November 1, 2010

   Theyre not useless, they can just be abused just like any other language feature.

   Consider the following code:

   public static readonly string NamePropertyName = “Name”;
   private string _name;
   public string Name{
   get {return _name;}
   set {_name = value; RaisePropertyChanged(NamePropertyName):}
   }

   now, would you prefer seeing that code repeated over and over again for each property or would you prefer to see a region wrapping it?

   Reply