When you have more than one level of abstraction your function is usually doing too much. Splitting up functions leads to reusability and easier testing.
Bad:
function parseCode(code: string) {
const REGEXES = [
/* ... */
];
const statements = code.split(' ');
const tokens = [];
REGEXES.forEach((regex) => {
statements.forEach((statement) => {
// ...
});
});
const ast = [];
tokens.forEach((token) => {
// lex...
});
ast.forEach((node) => {
// parse...
});
}
Good:
const REGEXES = [
/* ... */
];
function parseCode(code: string) {
const tokens = tokenize(code);
const syntaxTree = parse(tokens);
syntaxTree.forEach((node) => {
// parse...
});
}
function tokenize(code: string): Token[] {
const statements = code.split(' ');
const tokens: Token[] = [];
REGEXES.forEach((regex) => {
statements.forEach((statement) => {
tokens.push(/* ... */);
});
});
return tokens;
}
function parse(tokens: Token[]): SyntaxTree {
const syntaxTree: SyntaxTree[] = [];
tokens.forEach((token) => {
syntaxTree.push(/* ... */);
});
return syntaxTree;
}