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Software Engineering vocabulary · Code Review and Code Quality

Refactor

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/riːˈfæktər/verbCore term

In software engineering, refactor means: To improve the structure of existing code, making it cleaner or easier to change, without changing what it does for the user.

In Turkish: yeniden düzenlemek, yeniden yapılandırmak, kodu iyileştirmek

How it is used

Common in reviews and planning: 'refactor this into a separate class', 'a big refactor'. The noun is 'refactoring' or, informally, 'a refactor'. Good refactoring happens in small steps with tests in place.

Example sentences

  1. I refactored the payment module so each provider has its own class.

  2. Let's not mix a refactor with a bug fix in the same PR.

Common collocations

  • refactor the code
  • a big refactor
  • refactor into
  • refactoring work
  • technical debtThe future cost of shortcuts taken in code today: quick solutions that save time now but make later changes slower and riskier.
  • code smellA sign in code that suggests a deeper design problem, such as a very long function, duplicated logic or too many parameters, even if the code works.
  • code reviewThe practice of teammates reading and commenting on each other's code changes before they are merged, to catch problems and share knowledge.
  • legacy codeOld code that is still in use, often written by people who have left, with little documentation or few tests, so it feels risky to change.
  • unit testA small automated test that checks one function or class on its own, separate from the database, the network and the rest of the system.

More terms: Code Review and Code Quality

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