Code Refactoring in 2025: Best Practices & Popular Techniques

Code refactoring is the secret weapon for keeping your codebase clean and efficient without changing how it works. It streamlines the structure of existing code and removes duplicate code, making it more readable, maintainable, and ready for future updates. By refining what’s already there, refactoring reduces technical debt and minimizes bugs, saving time and effort in the long run.

In this blog, we’ll explore the significance of code refactoring and when and how to approach it. We’ll also explore ways to tackle common challenges and strategies that transform your codebase into an efficient and adaptable asset!

To explore this concept further, let’s start with learning the definition and significance of code refactoring.

What is Code Refactoring?

Code refactoring involves restructuring existing code to improve its internal structure while maintaining its external behavior. This practice focuses on enhancing the code's readability, eliminating redundancies, and optimizing performance without introducing new features or modifying the system's outward functionality.

Refactoring is especially valuable for long-term projects where code may accumulate technical debt over time. Technical debt is the future costs associated with cutting corners in software development, such as writing inefficient code or skipping testing to meet deadlines. Like financial debt, technical debt can compound, making it more complex and costly to maintain and scale a project in the future.

To fully appreciate its value, let’s explore the key benefits of effective code refactoring.

Top 5 Benefits of Code Refactoring

Code refactoring offers numerous advantages that significantly enhance software development.

Here are the top 5 benefits of code refactoring:

1. Improved Maintainability and Code-Readability

Well-organized code is easier to understand, which is crucial when multiple developers collaborate on the same project. Refactoring improves readability by organizing the code logically and reducing complexity.

2. Enhanced Debugging Efficiency

Debugging becomes simpler when the code is well-structured and easy to follow. Refactoring helps developers quickly identify bugs and abnormalities in the code, reducing the time spent on troubleshooting.

3. Eliminate Code Smells

Code smells are indicators that something is wrong with the code's design or structure. While not necessarily bugs, they suggest underlying issues that could lead to problems in the future.

4. Optimized Performance

Refactoring can improve performance by identifying and removing redundant code, optimizing algorithms, and ensuring efficient memory usage. This contributes to faster and more reliable applications.

5. Reduced Future Development Costs

Although refactoring requires upfront investments of time and resources, it later pays off with huge savings after some period. Clean and maintainable code is less likely to be bug-prone, making it easier to add new features, fix bugs, and scale the application without extreme rewrites.

Implement code refactoring at the right time to maximize its impact. Let’s learn when code refactoring delivers optimal value.

When to Refactor Code

Refactoring should be part of your regular development cycle, but there are specific scenarios when it becomes crucial.

Let’s explore when businesses or organizations should prioritize refactoring.

1. Before Adding New Features

Before planning significant feature additions, it is essential to refactor the existing codebase. If the code is messy, it’s challenging to integrate new features without causing conflicts or introducing bugs. Refactoring cleans up legacy code, providing a stable foundation for incorporating new features and enhancements.

For example, adding a new payment method to an e-commerce platform might involve multiple touchpoints across the system (database, frontend, API integrations). Refactoring beforehand ensures a smooth integration process, minimizes potential issues, and enhances scalability.

2. Implementing Post-Launch Improvements

Performance issues may arise once a product is live, or new features may be requested. Refactoring can help prepare the codebase for enhancements without jeopardizing existing functionality. For example, X (formerly Twitter) famously refactored their backend from Ruby on Rails to a Java-based stack to improve scalability and performance.

3. Transitioning to Newer Technologies or Libraries

As technologies evolve, upgrading to newer frameworks or libraries can offer better performance and enhanced features. Refactoring is crucial during these transitions, as it helps adapt the existing codebase to new paradigms and optimizes the integration.

For example, moving from an older JavaScript library to a modern framework like React requires refactoring the UI components for better compatibility, performance, and maintainability.

4. When Onboarding New Developers

When new developers join a team, well-structured code makes the onboarding process smoother. Refactoring ensures the codebase is clean and easy to understand, allowing new team members to contribute more quickly.

5. Familiar Code Smells

• Eliminating Duplicated Code: When the same logic is repeated in various parts of a codebase, it increases the risk of inconsistency, especially during updates. Refactoring helps consolidate these repetitive pieces into a single function or class, reducing the chances of errors and making future updates simpler.
   
• Simplifying Large Classes: Classes that provide extensive functionality can become challenging to understand. Refactoring allows developers to break down large classes into smaller, more focused ones, each with a single responsibility. This simplifies the codebase, making it easier to navigate, understand, and extend.
   
• Shortening Long Methods: Methods that perform multiple tasks or contain overly complex logic can become challenging to debug and maintain. Refactoring these methods by breaking them down into simpler chunks improves readability. It enhances debugging, as developers can pinpoint issues in well-defined code blocks.

With a clear understanding of when to refactor, we can now focus on the methodologies that guide an effective refactoring process.

6 Popular Code Refactoring Techniques

Refactoring requires a thoughtful approach to avoid breaking the existing functionality.

Here are some widely used refactoring techniques:

1. Red-Green-Refactor

The Red-Green-Refactor technique is widely used in Agile development, particularly in Test-Driven Development (TDD). TDD emphasizes writing tests before the code is developed, ensuring that the code is built to meet specified requirements from the start. This approach consists of three main steps:

1. Red: Consider what functionality you want to implement and write a test for it. This test should fail initially, indicating that the desired feature has not yet been implemented.
2. Green: Write just enough implementation code to make the failing test pass. At this stage, the goal is to get the functionality working without worrying about optimization or code quality.
3. Refactor: Once the test passes, refine and optimize the code. This step focuses on improving the code's structure and efficiency while ensuring that all tests still pass.

The Red-Green-Refactor method is particularly beneficial in several scenarios:

• Agile Environments: Teams using Agile methodologies can use this technique to ensure that new features are added incrementally and that each functionality is tested before proceeding.
• Complex Codebases: In projects with a codebase that has become complex and difficult to maintain, applying this technique can help break down the refactoring process into manageable steps.
• New Feature Development: When adding new features to an existing application, using TDD and the Red-Green-Refactor approach can prevent the introduction of bugs and ensure that new code integrates well with existing code.

This approach promotes continuous, incremental improvement while ensuring the code remains functional.

2. Refactoring by Abstraction

Refactoring by abstraction is used to eliminate redundancy and enhance modularity. This includes:

• Extracting common behaviors into interfaces or abstract classes.
• Moving methods or fields between classes.
• Breaking down large classes into smaller, reusable components.

Refactoring by abstraction is most beneficial when developers need to manage and refactor large amounts of code. It is particularly effective in scenarios where:

• Reducing Redundant Code: If a codebase contains multiple instances of similar functionality, abstraction can help eliminate these redundancies by consolidating common behaviors into a single place. This makes the code easier to maintain and reduces the chances of bugs introduced through duplicated logic.
• Managing Complex Codebases: In large-scale systems, abstraction helps simplify complex hierarchies by organizing related behaviors. This includes techniques like extracting subclasses, collapsing hierarchies, and creating abstract classes to encapsulate shared functionality.
• Branching by Abstraction: This approach minimizes unnecessary duplications by creating abstraction layers that isolate the system parts that need changes. This method allows for incremental adjustments without impacting the rest of the system, making it ideal for projects requiring regular releases.

Pull-Up/Push-Down Methods:

• Pull-Up Method: It moves common behaviors from subclasses into a superclass, helping to remove duplicate code across similar classes.
• Push-Down Method: It moves behavior from a superclass into specific subclasses when that behavior is only relevant to some instances.

By leveraging refactoring by abstraction, developers can create a more modular and scalable architecture. This makes extending the system easier and maintains consistency across the codebase.

This technique may be the right choice if you need to make significant changes while keeping the system stable.

3. Composing Methods

Long, complex methods can be challenging to maintain. Composing methods involves breaking them into smaller, well-named, and focused methods. Benefits include:

• Improved readability.
• Easier testing of smaller, self-contained functions.
• Enhanced flexibility when modifying or extending functionality.

By simplifying large methods, the overall clarity and maintainability of the codebase are significantly improved.

4. Preparatory Refactoring

Before implementing new features, it's often wise to refactor existing code to make it easier to modify. Preparatory refactoring involves:

• Simplifying algorithms.
• Cleaning up redundant or messy code.
• Reorganizing classes and methods to create a more transparent structure.

This technique ensures that the codebase is healthy, making future changes less error-prone and more accessible to implement.

Implementing the proper techniques is vital, but adhering to best practices can further enhance refactoring.

5. Simplifying Methods

Simplifying methods focuses on reducing the complexity of individual methods by:

• Reducing parameters to make methods easier to understand and use.
• Eliminating nested conditionals and breaking them into separate methods for improved clarity.
• Consolidating duplicate logic across methods to ensure a single point of change.

This approach improves the codebase's readability and usability, making it easier for developers to maintain and extend it.

6. Moving Features Between Objects

Sometimes, as requirements change or the code evolves, certain functionalities may be better suited in other parts of the system. This technique involves:

• Moving methods to another class where it better fits the functionality.
• Extracting classes when a class becomes too large, creating a new class that can take over some of its responsibilities.
• Redistributing responsibilities among objects to ensure a more logical and maintainable structure.

Moving features between objects helps create a well-balanced system in which each class or module has a clear and specific purpose.

Now that you know the best approaches to code refactoring, let’s learn the challenges of implementing them.

Top 4 Challenges with Code Refactoring

While code refactoring offers numerous benefits, it’s not without challenges.

Developers should be aware of the potential risks and complexities associated with the process.

1. Time Constraints

Refactoring requires an upfront investment of time, which can be challenging to justify in projects with tight deadlines. However, neglecting refactoring can lead to higher costs in the long run as technical debt accumulates.

2. Risk of Introducing Bugs

If not carried out carefully, the refactoring process can introduce new complexities or unintended issues, including the risk of introducing new bugs. It requires a deep understanding of the codebase and close collaboration with QA teams to identify potential risks and trade-offs.

2. Software Flaws

Simply reorganizing code structure through refactoring will not resolve underlying software defects. While refactoring enhances code organization and maintainability, it doesn't correct functional problems. Teams need dedicated debugging efforts and thorough testing protocols to address software issues adequately.

3. Refactoring Difficulties

Undertaking refactoring work carries its risks. Improving code structure may create new problems or unexpected side effects without careful planning and deep technical knowledge. Success requires a comprehensive understanding of the existing system and carefully evaluating potential impacts.

Addressing these challenges head-on requires strategic planning and proactive measures.

Now that you have a clear idea of the challenges of code refactoring let’s learn the solutions that can deliver the best results.

Strategies to Overcome Refactoring Challenges

While refactoring has substantial advantages, there are specific scenarios in which it may be prudent to refrain from this practice. 

Let’s now observe the best practices that can be used for code refactoring.

5 Best Practices for Code Refactoring

Developers should follow the 5 best practices below to refactor effectively, minimize risk, and maximize the process's benefits.

Here’s what needs to be done.

1. Collaborate with Testers to Ensure Quality

Involving the QA team during the refactoring process is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the code. QA teams thoroughly evaluate both functional and non-functional aspects of the code. They perform frequent testing to ensure consistency with code behavior, even as the internal structure evolves.

In addition, automated tests can help catch regressions and verify that refactoring efforts do not introduce new bugs.

2. Automate the Process to Streamline and Minimize Errors

Utilizing automated tools can significantly enhance refactoring by speeding up routine tasks such as variable renaming, method extraction, and class restructuring. These tools also reduce the potential for human error, allowing developers to focus on more complex refactoring tasks. Automation ensures that changes are consistently applied and helps maintain a high standard of code quality.

3. Refactor in Small Steps to Reduce Bugs

Adopting an incremental approach to refactoring minimizes the risk of introducing bugs. By breaking down the process into smaller, manageable changes, developers can test and validate each modification more easily. This controlled method ensures that the code remains functional throughout the refactoring process, making identifying and addressing any issues easier.

4. Separate Refactoring from Bug Fixing for Clarity and Focus

Maintaining a clear distinction between refactoring and bug fixing is essential for an effective development process. Refactoring aims to improve the code structure without altering functionality, while bug fixing addresses issues within the code’s behavior. Mixing the two can lead to confusion and make tracking progress more difficult.

Keeping these activities separate ensures developers can concentrate on each task's objectives.

5. Prioritize Code Deduplication to Improve Maintainability

Focusing on reducing code duplication is vital for enhancing the maintainability of a codebase. Duplicate code can lead to inconsistencies and complicate future updates across different parts of the system. By prioritizing eliminating redundant logic during refactoring, developers simplify the codebase, making it easier to understand, modify, and maintain in the long run.

Despite its many benefits, code refactoring presents several challenges that developers must navigate carefully. Let’s observe them in brief.

Conclusion

Code refactoring is essential for maintaining a healthy, efficient, and scalable codebase. While it requires an upfront investment, disciplined approach and careful planning, the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial investment. By following best practices such as collaborating with QA teams, automating processes, refactoring in small steps, and more developers can ensure that their codebase remains clean, maintainable, and free from technical debt.

As software systems grow in complexity, the importance of refactoring will only continue to increase. Embracing refactoring as a regular practice will help you build a strong foundation for the future, ensuring your codebase remains adaptable and efficient.

Consider partnering with experts to maximize the benefits of refactoring and stay ahead in the software landscape. Upgrade your software development with Maruti Techlabs! Our expert team can help you determine the most accurate refactoring strategies for your needs.

Our Software Code Audit Services can offer crucial insights into your code quality and identify areas for improvement! Contact us today to find out how we can help build scalable, efficient, and maintainable software foundations for your business's growth. 

FAQs

1. What is the primary purpose of code refactoring?

Code refactoring improves the internal structure of the code without changing its external behavior. It increases readability, removes redundancy, optimizes performance, and builds reliability for easy maintenance and scalability.

2. When should I prioritize code refactoring in my development cycle?

Code refactoring should be prioritized before adding new features, after a product launch, when fixing bugs or addressing technical debt, and when onboarding new developers to ensure a clean, maintainable codebase.

3. Does refactoring introduce new bugs?

While refactoring can introduce bugs, this risk can be mitigated by thorough testing during the process, including the use of automated testing frameworks and involving quality assurance (QA) teams to ensure the code’s functionality remains intact.

4. What are the key benefits of code refactoring?

Key benefits include improved readability and maintainability, easier debugging, elimination of code smells (e.g., duplicated code, large classes), optimized performance, and reduced future development costs by preventing technical debt.

5. Can I use tools to assist with code refactoring?

Yes, many refactoring automation tools are available, such as those integrated within IDEs like IntelliJ and Visual Studio Code and specialized platforms like SonarQube and CodeClimate, to streamline the refactoring process and reduce manual effort.

About the author

Mitul Makadia

Mitul is the Founder and CEO of Maruti Techlabs. From developing business strategies for our clients to building teams and ensuring teamwork at every level, he runs the show quite effortlessly.

Posts from this author