How many parameters in C# method are acceptable? [closed]

Question

I am new to C# and have to maintain a C# Application. Now I've found a method that has 32 Parameters (not auto-generated code).

From C/C++ I remember the rule of thumb "4 Parameters". It may be an old-fashioned rule rooting back to old 0x86 compilers, where 4 Parameters could be accommodated in registers (fast) or on stack otherwise.

I am not concerned about performance, but I do have a feeling that 32 parameters per functions are not easy to maintain even in C#.

Or am I completely not up to date?

What is the rule of thumb for C#?

Thank you for any hint!

Answer 1

There is no general consensus and it depends on who you ask.

In general - the moment readability suffers, there are too many...

Bob Martin says the ideal number of parameters is 0 and that 3 is stretching it.

32 parameters is a massive code smell. It means the class has way too many responsibilities and needs to be refactored. Even applying a parameter object refactoring sounds to me like it would hide a bad design rather than solve the issue.

From Clean Code Tip of the Week #10:

Functions should have a small number of arguments. No argument is best, followed by one, two, and three. More than three is very questionable and should be avoided with prejudice.