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<title>God object</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">God object</span></span>

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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For an object worshiped as a god, see <a href="Idol_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="Idol (disambiguation)">Idol</a>.</div>

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<p>In <a href="Object-oriented_programming" title="Object-oriented programming">object-oriented programming</a>, a <b>god object</b> (sometimes also called an <b>omniscient</b> or <b>all-knowing object</b>) is an <a href="Object_(computer_science)" title="Object (computer science)">object</a> that references a large number of distinct types, has too many unrelated or uncategorized methods, or some combination of both.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The god object is an example of an <a href="Anti-pattern" title="Anti-pattern">anti-pattern</a> and a <a href="Code_smell" title="Code smell">code smell</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Characteristics">Characteristics</h2></div>

<p>A common programming technique is to <a href="Separation_of_concerns" title="Separation of concerns">separate</a> a large problem into several smaller problems (a <a href="Divide_and_conquer_algorithm" class="mw-redirect" title="Divide and conquer algorithm">divide and conquer strategy</a>) and create solutions for each of them. Once the smaller problems are solved, the big problem as a whole has been solved. Therefore a given object for a small problem only needs to know about itself. Likewise, there is only one set of problems an object needs to solve: its <i>own</i> problems. This also follows the <a href="Single-responsibility_principle" title="Single-responsibility principle">single-responsibility principle</a>.

</p><p>In contrast, a program that employs a god object does not follow this approach. Most of such a program's overall functionality is coded into a single "all-knowing" object, which maintains most of the information about the entire program, and also provides most of the <a href="Subroutine" class="mw-redirect" title="Subroutine">methods</a> for manipulating this data. Because this object holds so much data and requires so many methods, its role in the program becomes god-like (all-knowing and all-encompassing). Instead of program objects communicating among themselves directly, the other objects within the program rely on the single god object for most of their information and interaction. Since this object is <a href="Coupling_(computer_programming)" title="Coupling (computer programming)">tightly coupled</a> to (referenced by) so much of the other code, maintenance becomes more difficult than it would be in a more evenly divided programming design. Changes made to the object for the benefit of one routine can have a ripple effect on other unrelated functions.

</p><p>A god object is the object-oriented analogue of failing to use <a href="Subroutine" class="mw-redirect" title="Subroutine">subroutines</a> in <a href="Procedural_programming" title="Procedural programming">procedural programming languages</a>, or of using far too many <a href="Global_variable" title="Global variable">global variables</a> to store <a href="State_(computer_science)" title="State (computer science)">state</a> information.

</p><p>Whereas creating a god object is typically considered bad programming practice, this technique is occasionally used for tight programming environments (such as <a href="Microcontroller" title="Microcontroller">microcontrollers</a>), where the <a href="Computer_performance" title="Computer performance">performance</a> increase and centralization of control are more important than maintainability and programming elegance.

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<ul><li><a href="Spaghetti_code#Ravioli_code" title="Spaghetti code">Ravioli code</a> – the opposite pattern</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFRiel1996" class="citation book cs1">Riel, Arthur J. (1996). "Chapter 3: Topologies of Action-Oriented Vs. Object-Oriented Applications". <i>Object-Oriented Design Heuristics</i>. Boston, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-201-63385-X</bdi>. <q>3.2: Do not create god classes/objects in your system. Be very suspicious of an abstraction whose name contains Driver, Manager, System, or Subsystem.</q></cite> </span>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFContieri2020" class="citation web cs1">Contieri, Maximiliano (2020-11-28). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://blog.devgenius.io/code-smell-14-god-objects-b84b75b702">"Code Smell 14 — God Objects"</a>. <i>Medium</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2023-03-06</span></span>.</cite></span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/chrismissal/archive/2009/05/28/anti-patterns-and-worst-practices-monster-objects.aspx">Anti-Patterns and Worst Practices – Monster Objects</a>.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://medium.com/dev-genius/code-smell-14-god-objects-b84b75b702">Code Smell 14 — God Objects</a></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-03-07" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=God_object&oldid=1279187308">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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