Fowler and Beck [F] note that the presence of too many instance variables usually indicates that a class is trying to do too much. In general, large classes typically contain too many responsibilities. Extract Class [F] and Extract Subclass [F], which are some of the main refactorings used to address this smell, help move responsibilities to other classes. The pattern-directed refactorings in this book make use of these refactorings to reduce the size of classes.
Replace Conditional Dispatcher with Command (191) extracts behavior into Command [DP] classes, which can greatly reduce the size of a class that performs a variety of behaviors in response to different requests.
Replace State-Altering Conditionals with State (166) can reduce a large class filled with state transition code into a small class that delegates to a family of State [DP] classes.
Replace Implicit Language with Interpreter (269) can reduce a large class into a small one by transforming copious code for emulating a language into a small Interpreter [DP].
