Python is a beautiful and powerful programming language with dynamic binding and typing. Its power and flexibility allow developers to employ multiple design patterns and rules. Moreover, developers keep looking for ways to improve their code. 

Implanting design principles, particularly cohesion and coupling, can impact the overall quality of the python code, allowing you to code faster and make changes quickly. Cohesion is referred to as the relationship within a module, while coupling is the relationship between the modules. 

How Design Principles Can Improve your Python Code

Arjan Egges, Founder of ArganCodes and Managing Director of Quarterfall, was a speaker at ELU Tech Summit 2022. According to him, software design can help structure your code and make it more manageable and straightforward to change if needed. He highlighted two main principles that can help you write python code better and faster. 

Egges explains the advantage of cohesion and coupling with examples that can help you understand the concept better. “The more complex your code becomes, the more significant it is to implement cohesion and coupling. This will help keep the most challenging codes as simple as possible and write code faster.”

Two Important Design Principles 

Coupling and cohesion are essential in creating more complicated applications. These are beneficial even when writing a small python script. 

For instance, when working on a machine learning project and writing a python script. Even if you have already split things, thinking about the design will make it more understandable for the entire team. Your code will be easier to maintain.

Let’s have a closer look at both the principles:

1. Cohesion

Instead of having a class or function that has 2000 lines of code and performs different things, you can try splitting things up. The advantage of splitting up things is that those pieces you create are easier to reuse and change since they are simple to understand. 

You don’t need to add unnecessary details to the code by benefiting from high cohesion and ensuring things are well separated.

2. Coupling 

Coupling is more about how dependent different pieces of code are on each other. If you change something in one piece of code, do you also need to update ten files after that to accommodate those changes? 

It is problematic if you have a piece of software with high coupling because every time you change, you have to adjust the code in other places. You can treat your application with low coupling as separate pieces communicating somehow, but those pieces can be modified without affecting the rest of the code.

Wrapping Up

Low coupling and high cohesion are regarded as the foundation of high-quality coding. Increasing the cohesion and decreasing the coupling can help you create a robust code and design. This also ensures you spend more time creating outstanding python scripts and less time trying to debug issues.