Software Architect's Handbook

Copy-and-paste programming

In poorly written codebases, code duplication often results from copy-and-paste programming. This happens when a developer needs the exact same or very similar logic, which exists somewhere else in the system, so they duplicate (copy and paste) the code. This violates the DRY principle and lowers the quality of the code.

Copy-and-paste programming can sometimes be acceptable and serve a useful purpose. Code snippets, which are small blocks of reusable code, may speed up development. Many IDEs and text editors provide snippet management to make the use of snippets easier for developers. However, beyond the appropriate application of snippets, it is usually not a good idea to copy and paste your application code in ...