Are circular dependencies considered bad design?

Question

In my work (which is 90% Java but I'm sure this question applies to other languages) I often create two classes that "know about" each other. More concretely, class A imports B, and class B imports class A, and both have member or local variables of the other type.

Is this considered bad design? An anti-pattern if you will?

dupe [Are circular class dependencies bad from a coding style point of view?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1356304) — Nick Dandoulakis, Feb 07 '12 at 09:55
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1897537/why-are-circular-dependencies-considered-harmful — Pup, Jul 22 '12 at 01:54
That question is about circular references, objects that reference each other and not class dependencies — Stuart Wakefield, May 27 '13 at 11:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 07 '12 at 09:14

Here is my take:

If the two classes belong to the same logical module, then it's probably fine (still a judgement call of course, with lots of grey areas).
It's less fine if the two classes belong to different modules. This creates a circular dependency between modules. I try to avoid that as much as can, preferring a clear hierarchical structure.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 07 '12 at 09:15

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Yes , It's bad design , It's contradicting the oop principles , It's seems you have to create a new class or interface will contain the the shared parameters and function for a and b , a and b imports this new class...

answered Feb 07 '12 at 09:15

TwTw

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Are circular dependencies considered bad design?

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