Dry (group)

DRY, which stands for "Don't Repeat Yourself," is a principle of software development aimed at reducing repetition of software patterns, avoiding redundancy, and promoting abstraction. The DRY principle states that "Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system."

Essentially, the DRY principle advocates for consolidating common logic, data structures, or algorithms into a single, well-defined location. Changes to that knowledge then only need to be made in one place, reducing the risk of errors and inconsistencies that can arise from having to update multiple locations with similar information.

Violating the DRY principle is often referred to as "WET," which can stand for "Write Everything Twice," "We Enjoy Typing," or "Waste Everyone's Time." WET code is considered more difficult to maintain, debug, and refactor.

The DRY principle applies to various aspects of software development, including code, database schemas, documentation, and testing. Effective application of DRY often involves identifying commonalities, creating abstractions, and utilizing modular design principles.

While striving for DRY is generally beneficial, it is important to avoid premature abstraction. Over-generalizing too early in the development process can lead to unnecessary complexity and hinder maintainability. The key is to strike a balance between avoiding redundancy and creating flexible, maintainable code.