Large functions that handle multiple responsibilities should be decomposed into smaller, focused functions to improve readability, maintainability, and facilitate code reviews.
When a function becomes difficult to understand at a glance or handles multiple distinct operations, consider extracting logical chunks into separate methods. This is especially important when functions exceed ~50 lines or when reviewers comment that the code would benefit from splitting.
Example of improvement:
# Before: Large function doing multiple things
def _process_insight_for_evaluation(self, insight: Insight, query_executor: AssistantQueryExecutor) -> dict:
insight_info = self._create_base_insight_info(insight)
try:
query_dict = self._parse_insight_query(insight)
if query_dict:
self._execute_and_update_info(insight_info, query_dict, query_executor)
self._add_visualization_message(insight_info, insight)
else:
self._handle_no_query(insight_info, insight)
except Exception as e:
self._handle_evaluation_error(insight_info, insight, e)
return insight_info
# After: Broken into focused helper methods
def _parse_insight_query(self, insight: Insight) -> dict | None:
# Separate method for query parsing
pass
def _execute_and_update_info(self, insight_info: dict, query_dict: dict, executor):
# Separate method for execution
pass
This approach makes each function easier to test, understand, and modify independently. It also makes code reviews more focused since reviewers can evaluate each logical operation separately.
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