Benefits of Dependency Injection in C#

Overview

One of the most basic yet crucial aspects of a software development project is developing highly maintainable and testable code, right? Well, achieving this objective is pretty important as well, and it shouldn’t be ignored at any rate. Fortunately, tools such as dependency injection can assist in achieving such hard-hitting objectives. The following post explains or emphasises DI. What is Dependency Injection, how is it beneficial in the long run, and what are concrete styles, control mechanisms that empower developers to a great extent?

What is Dependency Injection?

Well, it is one of the most trustworthy techniques used in conducting successful object-oriented programming to reduce hardcoded dependencies between objects. Technically speaking, dependency is mainly a piece of code which mainly relies on another resource to carry out all the pre-intended functions. Now the resource doesn't need to be the same object in the same application, it can be different. In simple words, the method usually addresses how different components and objects are being constructed and the way they tend to acquire the dependencies for conducting proper operations.

Dependency injection successfully assists in conducting highly scalable and maintainable systems. So, what exactly is the role of dependency injection?

First and foremost, here the dependencies of a class are successfully injected from outside instead of creating the class or managing dependencies on an internal basis. Dependency injection comprises the four main roles:

• Client - Who is the client here? It is mainly the component or the class that highly depends on the service offered by another class or module. Now, does this mean the client provides dependencies? Of course, not! It only receives them from the injector, which is mainly responsible for offering dependencies.

• Service - The next role of dependency injection is regarding the service. Here, the service mainly means the component or class that provides a particular functionality or service, which the client highly depends on. So, here specific functionalities are being offered and are made to be independent of clients.

• Injector - The next one is the injector, where instances of services are supposed to be developed and injected into the client by the injector only. Injector is pretty well aware of all dependencies of the client and offers relevant services during runtime.

• Interface—The next is an interface. It highly defines a contract or a set of different methods that services have to implement. When clients tend to rely on these interfaces instead of specific implementations, injectors are supposed to promote flexibility and the ability to swap implementations.

Why does one need dependency injection?

Let us say, you have a car class comprising a wide range of objects such as wheels, engine, and a lot more. So, what is the role of the car class here? It is highly responsible for developing all kinds of dependency objects. Now, imagine you decided to ditch the MRF wheels and are willing to use their alternative, which is Yokohama.

So the car object needs to be recreated with a new Yokohama dependency. Now, when we use dependency injection, it is possible to change the wheels at runtime since dependencies can be successfully injected at runtime instead of compile time. It is safe to think of dependency injection as a middleman that creates the preferred wheel object and offers it to the best car class. This is what successfully makes the car class independent from developing objects of wheels and batteries.

In short, dependency injection is highly responsible for:

• Creating the objects

• Knowing which class requires those objects

• And of course, offering them those objects

When should one be using Dependency Injection?

• Loose coupling and reusability

• Seamless testability

• Quick maintenance and flexibility

• Highly scalable and extensible

• Cross-cutting concerns

When should one not use dependency injection?

• Creating the simplest applications

• Numerous performance concerns

• Fewer dependencies

• Legacy systems

• Lack of flexibility

Benefits of Considering Dependency Injection

Speaking about the current modern software development realm, dependency injection seems to have become a huge cornerstone. And not to mention, it offers a wide range of benefits and advantages, which we will be going through in this segment.

1. Loose coupling

One of the biggest benefits offered by dependency injection is that it ensures seamless loose coupling. Yes, with the help of dependency injection, you can relax thinking all the software components are loosely coupled, as well as being great in terms of flexibility. Generally, objects tend to depend on abstractions as opposed to concrete implementations. So what does this lead to? It results in easier maintenance, testing, and refactoring. Not to mention, these dependencies can be seamlessly swapped as well as modified without having a significant impact on the dependent object.

2. Great testability

The next benefit offered by dependency injection is high-end testability. So when you happen to inject dependencies, substituting real objects with mock or test doubles while conducting unit and integration tests. So here you no longer have to use actual dependencies, but can have appropriate alternative implementations, which mainly stimulate the behavior of real dependencies. This could be way more beneficial for testing.

3. Great flexibility

The very next benefit to take into account is high-end flexibility. Dependency injection successfully enables immensely flexible, extensible, and easy-to-maintain coding. Here, it is highly possible to add a new range of features and functionalities that can be successfully added by introducing a new set of dependencies and successfully injecting them. Also, here introducing new changes is possible and that too without making any kind of modifications to the existing code, and you won’t face the unnecessary risk of introducing unwanted bugs.

4. Boilerplate code is reduced

The next benefit offered by dependency injection is the reduction of boilerplate coding. Yes, the scope of dependency creation as well as injection is automated, which simultaneously reduces boilerplate code. So this frees your valuable developers and they can focus well on core application development instead of focusing on manual dependency management.

5. Separation of concerns

Last but certainly not least, dependency injection does ensure separation of concerns, one of the most fundamental principles used in software design. Here, all the components are highly responsible for conducting specific tasks as well as dependencies. This leads to a clear division of numerous responsibilities.

Conclusion

And we are done for now! Dependency injection is extremely important if you want to conduct a successful development project. Ignoring this will do lots and lots of harm. I hope you enjoyed reading the following post. In case you still have any doubts or queries, feel free to mention them in the comment section below. Also, it would be great if you could share the post among your peers and help us in reaching out to more and more avid readers like you. Good luck with your development project. Also, it is advisable to hire a reputable and reliable software development company that has a proven track record of offering the best possible solutions from their doorstep.