Where do you add new methods?

Question

When you add a new method to a class where do you put it? At the end of the class...the top? Do you organize methods into specific groupings? Sorted alphabetically?

Just looking for general practices in keeping class methods organized.

Update When grouped where do you add the new method in the group? Just tack on the end or do you use some sort of sub-grouping, sorting?

Update 2 Mmmm...guess the question isn't as clear as I thought. I'm not really looking for class organization. I'm specifically interested in adding a new method to an existing class. For example:

public class Attendant
{
 public void GetDrinks(){}
 public void WelcomeGuests(){}
 public void PickUpTrask(){}
 public void StrapIn(){}
}

Now we're going to add a new method PrepareForCrash(). Where does it go? At the top of the list, bottom, alphabetically or near the StrapIn() method since it's related.

Answer 1

Near "StrapIn" because it's related. That way if you refactor later, all related code is nearby.

Most code editors allow you to browse method names alphabetically in another pane, so organizing your code functionally makes sense within the actual code itself. Group functional methods together, makes life easier when navigating through the class.

Answer 2

What I like about C# and VB.net is the ability to use #region tags, so generally my classes look like this

class MyClass
{

#region Constructors

public MyClass()
{
}

public MyClass(int x)
{
_x = x;
}

#endregion

#region Members
private int _x;
#endregion

#region methods
public void DoSomething()
{
}
#endregion

#region Properties
public int Y {get; private set;}
#endregion

}

So basically You put similar things together so you can collapse everything to definition and get to your stuff really faster.

Answer 3

Generally, it depends on the existing grouping; if there's an existing grouping that the new method fits into, I'll put it there. For example, if there's a grouping of operators, I'll put the new method with the operators if it's an operator.

Of course, if there is no good grouping, adding a method may suggest a new grouping; I treat that as an opportunity for refactoring, and try to regroup the existing operators where reasonable.

Answer 4

I organize all methods into regions like public methods, private methods or sometimes by features like Saving methods, etc..

Answer 5

I think it's a personal choice. However I like to organise my classes as such.

public class classname  
{
    <member variables>

    <constructors>
    <destructor>

    <public methods>

    <protected methods>

    <private methods>
}

The reason for this is as such.

Member variables at the top
To see what member variables exist and if they are initialised.

Constructors To see if the member variables are setup/initialised as well as what are all the construction options for the class.

Destructor
To see the how the class is cleaned up and verify it with the constructors and member variables.

Public methods
To see what are the available contracts callers of the object can use.

Protected methods To see what inherited classes would be using.

Private methods As it's information about the internals of the class if you needed to know about the internals you can just scroll straight to the end quickly. But to know the interface for the class it's all at the start.

UPDATE - Based on OP's update
Logically a good way would be to organise the methods by categories of what they do. This way you get the readabilty of categorising your methods as well as the alphabetical search from you IDE (provided this is in your IDE).

However in a practical sense I think placing the methods at the end of that section is the best way. It would be quite hard to continually police where each method goes, as it's subjective, for every method if the code is shared by more than yourself.

If you were to make this a standard it'd be quite hard to provide the boundaries for where to put each method.

Answer 6

IMHO: If you organize your methods alphabetically, put a new one depends on its name. Otherwise put it at the bottom of related group. This helps to know, what method is newer. The bigger problem is how to organize methods in groups, e.g. depend on what properties, but this is more individual for everyone and depends on a specific class.

Answer 7

For goodness sake, not alphabetically!

I tend to group my functions in the order I expect them to be called during the life of the object, so that a top to bottom read of the header file tends to explain the operation of the class.