DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) in Software Engineering - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) Principle

📖 Scenario: You are working on a small project where you need to calculate the area of different shapes multiple times. To keep your code clean and avoid repeating the same calculations, you will learn how to apply the DRY principle.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple example that shows how to avoid repeating code by using a function to calculate areas of shapes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create variables with shape dimensions

Create a helper variable for shape type

Write a function to calculate area based on shape type

Use the function to get area without repeating code

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

In real projects, avoiding repeated code saves time and reduces errors when making changes.

💼 Career

Understanding DRY is essential for writing clean, maintainable code in any software development role.

1

DATA SETUP: Define shape dimensions

Create two variables called length and width with values 5 and 3 respectively.

Software Engineering

# Create variables length and width with values 5 and 3
# Your code here

Hint

Use simple assignment statements like length = 5.

2

CONFIGURATION: Define the shape type

Create a variable called shape and set it to the string "rectangle".

Software Engineering

length = 5
width = 3
# Create a variable shape and set it to "rectangle"
# Your code here

Hint

Assign the string "rectangle" to the variable shape.

3

CORE LOGIC: Write a function to calculate area

Define a function called calculate_area that takes shape, length, and width as parameters. Inside the function, use an if statement to return length * width if shape is "rectangle". Otherwise, return 0.

Software Engineering

length = 5
width = 3
shape = "rectangle"
# Define function calculate_area(shape, length, width) with if statement
# Your code here

Hint

Use a function with parameters and an if-else statement to decide the area.

4

COMPLETION: Use the function to get the area

Create a variable called area and set it to the result of calling calculate_area with shape, length, and width as arguments.

Software Engineering

length = 5
width = 3
shape = "rectangle"
def calculate_area(shape, length, width):
    if shape == "rectangle":
        return length * width
    else:
        return 0
# Call calculate_area and assign result to area
# Your code here

Hint

Call the function with the variables and assign the result to area.