DRY - Don’t Repeat Yourself 🌵

The Principle

Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

Benefits

Reduces duplication
Improves maintainability
Avoids inconsistencies
Less code to write and maintain
Promotes abstraction*

⚠️

Note: When creating abstractions, favor composition over inheritance - small reusable components that can be composed flexibly over monolithic inheritance trees biting you back on long-term.

How to Apply DRY

Refactor duplicate code into shared functions or components
Share and reuse data, templates, configuration instead of duplicating
Use variables, constants, config files over hard-coded values
Create abstractions* and higher level concepts that can be reused
Automate repetitive tasks instead of doing them manually

Examples

Reuse utilities or components across a project
Consume APIs instead of duplicating client code
Create libraries to share logic between applications
Use shared configuration like API keys, templates, boilerplate

DRY aims to reduce repetition and improve code reuse and maintenance. It promotes creating abstractions and leveraging existing capabilities over reinventing the wheel.