Was the code commented-out to toggle a feature on and off for testing purposes? Feature flags and compiler directives are better alternatives.The version control system will remember it. If the code was commented by fear of losing it, delete it.What to do with the commented-out code? The answer will depend on the reason why the code was commented-out in the first place, and that varies. Commented-out code can also create problems when it’s eventually uncommented: the longer it stays commented-out, the less likely it is that it’s still right and fits the rest of the application. It will get in the way of the useful code, forcing you to scroll through the screen in order to get to the function you need to read or edit. Developers will see it and wondering whether that code is supposed to be used or not. We recommend you read at least one of those articles, but we’ll offer the short version here anyway.Ĭommented-out code is a source of distraction and cognitive load. Getting rid of commented-out code is something easy to do, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who’s a regular reader of this blog since we’ve already covered that topic before and not only a single time. Think of the seven tips you’ll read as a practical embodiment of the scouting principle: leave the code better than how you’ve found it. On some days, you might be able to pull it off, but on others, it might be harder to do so. We don’t necessarily expect you to perform all of the steps every day. We’ll present seven simple code cleanup tasks that you can perform daily, to keep your codebase readable, easy to navigate, and maintain. As with many things in software development-and in general life-it’s often more comfortable, less painful and more productive to do an unpleasant task every day, little by little than let it accumulate and become a monster.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the way it should be. Well, sometimes it may be an arduous task, indeed.

“Code cleanup” is a phrase that sounds like it’s a lot of work.

Visual studio code cleanup