Showing posts with label formatting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formatting. Show all posts

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Code Formatting and New Lines

Last week I had a healthy debate with some co-workers about code formatting, which to a lot of developers can be a pretty religious subject. While you could argue that coding style should be a personal preference, I believe it's more important to use consistent coding practices when working in a team environment.

One formatting style we discussed was the use of new lines in code blocks. Here are three common formatting styles for the same code:

Style 1

if (true) {
console.log('yay!');
} else {
console.log('boo!');
}


Style 2

if (true) {
console.log('yay!');
}
else {
console.log('boo!');
}


Style 3

if (true)
{
console.log('yay!');
}
else
{
console.log('boo!');
}


When I first starting coding, I preferred Style 3, since it provides more visual separation. Currently I prefer Style 2, although it's not even a formatting option at http://jsbeautifier.org/, which makes me question my choice a little. Douglas Crockford seems to prefer Style 1, so maybe I should consider making the switch.

Which do you prefer?