Java method design pattern

Question

I'm developing a program that scrapes the web for certain data and feeds it back to the database. The problem is that I don't want duplicate entries of the same data as soon as the crawlers run for a second time. If some attributes changed, but the majority of the data is still the same, I'd like to update the DB entry rather than simply adding a new one. I know how to do this in code, but I was wondering if this could be done better.

The way the update works right now:

//This method calls several other methods to check if the event in question already exists. If it does, it updates it using the id it returns. 
//If it doesn't exist, -1 is returned as an id.
public static void check_event(Event event)
{
    int id = -1;

    id = check_exact_event(event); //Check if an event exists with the same title, location and time.
    if(id > 0)
    {
        update_event(event, id);
        Logger.log("EventID #" + id + " found using exact comparison");
        return;
    }

    id = check_similar_event_titles(event); //Check if event exists with a different (but similar) title
    if(id > 0)
    {
        update_event(event, id);
        Logger.log("EventID #" + id + " found using similar title comparison");
        return;
    }

    id = check_exact_image(event); //Check if event exists with the exact same image
    if(id > 0)
    {
        update_event(event, id);
        Logger.log("EventID #" + id + " found using image comparison");
        return;
    }

    //Otherwise insert new event
    create_new_event(event);
}

This works, but it's not very pleasing to the eye. What's the best way to go about this?

In Java, convention is to use camelCase (update_event -> updateEvent, check_event -> checkEvent etc). And it's not that bad as code. — T. Claverie
– T. Claverie, Commented May 17, 2016 at 9:26
@T.Claverie I'll keep that in mind, thanks! That's just for method names right? — RoboticR
– RoboticR, Commented May 17, 2016 at 9:28
In theory if you move your log to method which gets you event, you could achieve it in single if statement, code would be shorter, but want be cleaner — user902383
– user902383, Commented May 17, 2016 at 9:39

user902383 · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-17 09:48:02Z

3

Personally i can'tsee anything wron with your code, it is clean and effective. If you really want to change it, you could do it in single if statement

public static void check_event(Event event) {
        int id = -1;

        if ((id = check_exact_event(event)) > 0
                || (id = check_similar_event_titles(event)) > 0
                || (id = check_exact_image(event)) > 0) {
            update_event(event, id);
        }
        ;
        create_new_event(event);
    }

But i cant see much gain in this way

answered May 17, 2016 at 9:48

user902383

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3 Comments

AxelH Over a year ago

Since the code is repetitive, I would do it like this. This is much better if you need to update this logic, no need to copy paste the modif two times. Want to add a message, only need to add it once.

user902383 Over a year ago

@AxelH see your point, maybe is my personal opinion, but for me assigning variables in this way might affect readability.

AxelH Over a year ago

Of course, actually I wouldn't work in static at all for this one, check_*_event would return a boolean and store the id in a instance variable. The condition would only be check || check || check which is more readable and a would use the getter to send to updateEvent the correct id. A checkMethods should return a boolean for me, but this is also an opinion ;)

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