android.util.Log when publishing - what can I do / not do

Question

I\'ve got a hell of a lot of Log.i Log.d Log.e in my code for a recent app I\'ve done. I\'m about to publish this app and I don\'t really want people seeing it when they plu

Answer 1

As Octavian points out inserting a logging constant would be the best way to do this. Writing a new class for this that calls the original logging methods if debugging is enabled is not a good idea.

Good practice:

if (C.D) { Log.d(C.T, "your log text here " + foo + bar); }

Bad practice:

YourLog.d("your log text here " + foo + bar);

// and in YourLog.java's d() method:
... { if (debugging) Log.d(tag, text); }

The first solution is very fast if the constant D of class C is false. If you have complex string operations for creating your logging string they will not be executed if debugging is deactivated. The compiler can even remove these operations at compile time if D is false, which may result in zero runtime overhead. The second (bad) solution will always build the whole string and call a method, which is overhead you don't need.

In general the first solution would be best. And yes, I really call the class and members C, D and T (Constants/Debugging/Tag) - for performance reasons during typing. ;-)