Software Engineering Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [coding-style]

Coding style is a set of guidelines that helps readability and understanding of the source code.

Coding style is a set of rules or guidelines used when writing the source code for a computer program. It is often claimed that following a particular programming style will help programmers to read and understand source code conforming to the style, and help to avoid introducing errors.

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Where did the notion of "one return only" come from?

I often talk to programmers who say "Don't put multiple return statements in the same method." When I ask them to tell me the reasons why, all I get is "The coding standard says so." or "It's confusing." When they show me solutions with a single…
fredoverflow
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Is the use of "utf8=✓" preferable to "utf8=true"?

I have recently seen a few URIs containing the query parameter "utf8=✓". My first impression (after thinking "mmm, looks cool") was that this could be used to detect a broken character encoding. So, is this a better way to resolve potential…
Gary
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Should curly braces appear on their own line?

Should curly braces be on their own line or not? What do you think about it? if (you.hasAnswer()) { you.postAnswer(); } else { you.doSomething(); } or should it be if (you.hasAnswer()) { you.postAnswer(); } else { …
Tamara Wijsman
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Should I return from a function early or use an if statement?

I've often written this sort of function in both formats, and I was wondering if one format is preferred over another, and why. public void SomeFunction(bool someCondition) { if (someCondition) { // Do Something } } or public…
Rachel
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Python file naming convention?

I've seen this part of PEP-8 https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#package-and-module-names I'm not clear on whether this refers to the file name of a module/class/package. If I had one example of each, should the filenames be all lower case…
darkace
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Are `break` and `continue` bad programming practices?

My boss keeps mentioning nonchalantly that bad programmers use break and continue in loops. I use them all the time because they make sense; let me show you the inspiration: function verify(object) { if (object->value < 0) return false; if…
Mikhail
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What's wrong with circular references?

I was involved in a programming discussion today where I made some statements that basically assumed axiomatically that circular references (between modules, classes, whatever) are generally bad. Once I got through with my pitch, my coworker asked,…
dash-tom-bang
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Developer insists if statements shouldn't have negated conditions, and should always have an else block

I have an acquaintance, a more seasoned developer than me. We were talking about programming practices and I was taken aback by his approach on 'if' statements. He insists on some practices regarding if statements that I find rather…
Patsuan
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Elegant ways to handle if(if else) else

This is a minor niggle, but every time I have to code something like this, the repetition bothers me, but I'm not sure that any of the solutions aren't worse. if(FileExists(file)) { contents = OpenFile(file); // <-- prevents inclusion in if …
Benjol
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Programming cleanly when writing scientific code

I don't really write large projects. I'm not maintaining a huge database or dealing with millions of lines of code. My code is primarily "scripting" type stuff - things to test mathematical functions, or to simulate something - "scientific…
Auden Young
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Should the variable be named Id or ID?

This is a bit pedantic, but I've seen some people use Id as in: private int userId; public int getUserId(); and others use: private int userID; public int getUserID(); Is one of these a better name than the other? Why? I've seen this done very…
Adam
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What is the ideal length of a method for you?

In object-oriented programming, there is of course no exact rule on the maximum length of a method , but I still found these two quotes somewhat contradicting each other, so I would like to hear what you think. In Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile…
Spring
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Are private methods with a single reference bad style?

Generally I use private methods to encapsulate functionality that is reused in multiple places in the class. But sometimes I have a large public method that could be broken up into smaller steps, each in its own private method. This would make the…
Jordak
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Is there an excuse for short variable names?

This has become a large frustration with the codebase I'm currently working in; many of our variable names are short and undescriptive. I'm the only developer left on the project, and there isn't documentation as to what most of them do, so I have…
KChaloux
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Why do most of us use 'i' as a loop counter variable?

Has anyone thought about why so many of us repeat this same pattern using the same variable names? for (int i = 0; i < foo; i++) { // ... } It seems most code I've ever looked at uses i, j, k and so on as iteration variables. I suppose I picked…
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