Are there any techniques to split a method with a flag argument?

Question

I have a method with a flag argument. I think that passing a boolean to a method is a bad practice (complicates the signature, violates the "each method does one thing" principle). I think splitting the method into two different methods is better. But if I do that, the two methods would be very similar (code duplication).

I wonder if there are some general techniques for splitting methods with a flag argument into two separate methods.

Here's the code of my method (Java):

int calculateNumOfLiveOrDeadNeighbors(Cell c, int gen, boolean countLiveOnes) {
   int x = c.getX();
   int y = c.getY();
   CellState state;
   int aliveCounter = 0;
   int deadCounter = 0;
   for (int i = x - 1; i <= x + 1; i++) {
      for (int j = y - 1; j <= y + 1; j++) {
         if (i == x && j == y)
            continue;
         state = getCell(i, j).getCellState(gen);
         if (state == CellState.LIVE || state == CellState.SICK){
            aliveCounter++;
         }
         if(state == CellState.DEAD || state == CellState.DEAD4GOOD){
            deadCounter++;
         }
      }
   }
   if(countLiveOnes){
      return aliveCounter;
   }
   return deadCounter;
}

Answer 1

If you don't like the boolean on your signature, you could add two different methods without it, refactoring to private the main one:

int calculateNumOfLiveNeighbors(Cell c, int gen) {
  return calculateNumOfLiveOrDeadNeighbors(c, gen, true);
}
int calculateNumOfDeadNeighbors(Cell c, int gen) {
  return calculateNumOfLiveOrDeadNeighbors(c, gen, false);
}

OR

you could code a Result Class or int array as output parameter for storing both the results; this would let you get rid of the annoying boolean parameter.

Answer 2

I guess it depends on every single case.

In this example you have two choices, in my opinion.

Say you want to split the call calculateNumOfLiveOrDeadNeighbors()

in two:

calculateNumOfLiveNeighbors() 

and

calculateNumOfDeadNeighbors()

You can use Template Method to move the loop to another method. You can use it to count dead / alive cells in the two methods.

private int countCells(Cell c, int gen, Filter filter)
{
    int x = c.getX();
    int y = c.getY();
    CellState state;
    int counter = 0;
    for (int i = x - 1; i <= x + 1; i++) 
    {
        for (int j = y - 1; j <= y + 1; j++) 
        {
            if (i == x && j == y)
                continue;
            state = getCell(i, j).getCellState(gen);
            if (filter.countMeIn(state))
            {
                counter++;
            }
        }
    }
    return counter;
 }

 private interface Filter
 {
      boolean countMeIn(State state);
 }

 public int calculateNumOfDeadNeighbors(Cell c, int gen)
 {
     return countCells(c, gen, new Filter()
                       { 
                           public boolean countMeIn(CellState  state)
                           {
                              return (state == CellState.DEAD || state == CellState.DEAD4GOOD);
                           }
                        });
  }

 public int calculateNumOfLiveNeighbors(Cell c, int gen)
 {
     return countCells(c, gen, new Filter()
                       { 
                           public boolean countMeIn(CellState  state)
                           {
                              return (state == CellState.LIVE || state == CellState.SICK);
                           }
                        });
  }

It's cumbersome, maybe not even worth the pain. You can, alternatively, use a monad to store the results of your statistics calculation and then use getDeadCounter() or getLiveCounter() on the monad, as many suggested already.