Description Mike D Pilsbury 2003-02-26 06:01:46 EST

[RC1]

Using Refactor Rename to rename a class to have the same name as an existing 
class in a different package can result in uncompilable code.

Consider three classes; a.X, a.Y and b.Z

// a.X
package a;
import b.Z;

public class X {
  private Y y;
  private Z z;
  
  void func() {
    y.getYValue();
    z.getZValue();
  }
}

// a.Y
package a;

public class Y {
    public String getYValue() {
      return "";
    }
}

// b.Z
package b;

public class Z {
  public String getZValue() {
    return "";
  }
}

Now refactor rename b.Z to b.Y, and class a.X will become

// a.X
package a;
import b.Y;

public class X {
  private Y y;
  private Y z;
  
  void func() {
    y.getYValue();
    z.getZValue();
  }
}

There has been no attempt to distinguish between a.Y and b.Y. I think that what 
should probably have happened is that
  private Y z;
should have become
  private b.Y z;

The most frustrating aspect of this bug is that it is not possible to undo the 
refactoring, as the two Y classes are now unseparable in a.X. Not too much of a 
problem in this scenario, but when the refactoring hits 100+ classes it's not 
funny.

[I am not suggesting that two classes of the same name in different packages 
(both under my control) is a good idea. When I encountered the problem, it was 
an intermediate step in some refactoring I was doing.]