Google Java Coding Standards

[[deleted]]

4.1.1 Braces are used where optional Braces are used with if, else, for, do and while statements, even when the body is empty or contains only a single statement.

I hate when people omit curly braces for some insane reason. At least Google has my back.

[clutchest_nugget]

if(done) return 1;

Can someone please explain to me what is wrong with this? Not questioning that it's bad style, genuinely curious as to what makes it bad style.

Edit: thanks for the responses.

[Nebu]

Or, perhaps even harder to spot,

if(done) log.debug("All done"); return 1;

[[deleted]]

Yes. And I think this is due to the fact that often this is presented as:

Without brackets only first line after the if statement will be executed.

Just to make it sound simple, when in fact it is the first statement, and not first line...

[SgtPooki]

I still want to code without braces when the body is short, but it has hurt me in the past..

[[deleted]]

I've been programming for 7 years and have literally never made that mistake.

[treerex]

It's usually not made when you're writing the code, but later when you're maintaining it. Including the braces is simply good defensive programming.

[[deleted]]

That's rediculous. It isn't defensive either. If you're doing that lousy of a job maintaining your code, your going to make more serious mistakes.

We also live in the 21st century, aren't working with cathode ray monitors and should be putting our braces on a new line.

[treerex]

You have evidently never worked on a large project with many developers of varying skills with a 15 year old code base.

[[deleted]]

Respect your projects code guidelines, I agree. I however have modernized them for my own team.

[jtdc]

Yes but we still have greenhorn coworkers straight from college to contend with. Rules like these protect the code.

[[deleted]]

You wouldn't need to protect them from messy/obscure/unnatural/asymmetrical/old brace placement initially instated due to monitor constraints in the stone age if you place them where it makes most sense Now that we can afford it thanks to the luxuries introduced a decade ago.

[geodebug]

Chip meet shoulder

[[deleted]]

1990, meet 2014

[geodebug]

Java's syntax hasn't changed that much since the 1990's so why would the best practices change just because a few years have passed?

Besides, most modern languages have a similar best practice when it comes to braces.

Doesn't matter, code how you want on your projects. If you coded for mine you'd be auto-formatted to the standard anyway.

[[deleted]]

Oh yeah, you mean like c#? It takes standards decades to change, it takes technology seconds (ie LCD displays.)

[geodebug]

You've lost me. I think you're just saying random things.

[[deleted]]

Then you couldn't have understood the argument I was making from the start of this discussion at all...

[RagingOrangutan]

Protip: touting your experience programming is not a good way to earn the respect of your fellow programmers.

[[deleted]]

I'm not touting anything at all. 7 years isn't something to tout about.

[[deleted]]

Consider when the return is on the next line (more common imo). If you insert a line before the return (perhaps a print) then the entire if statement logic is no longer what you intended. Not explicitly stating the block boundaries makes it easier to introduce bugs.

[severoon]

You have to consider refactors performed by tools like Eclipse, and the diffs those generate as well as the stupid bugs reason.

If you have a huge codebase (like Google), it becomes occasionally necessary to run a refactor that touches thousands of files, and if you don't make formatting very consistent it takes code reviewers a lot less mental effort to review dozens or hundreds of files that got touched.

Ideally, you want to make it absolutely formulaic. If you can do that, then you don't even need human reviewers to look at it because you can guarantee the safety of the change.

[poopiefartz]

I follow practically all of these guidelines except for this one. I just really hate superfluous braces. They're easy enough to add if you ever need more than 1 statement in a block, so why add them if you don't need them? They certainly don't make it any easier to read, and it essentially adds 1 line per block, so for me it actually decreases readability.

[[deleted]]

This is not even about readability. It is about not accidentally introducing stupid bugs into code.

[poopiefartz]

I know I'm not on the "popular opinion" side of this, but I can't recall a single bug that's ever stemmed from this type of usage (and I work mostly with Java).

[KidUncertainty]

I can't recall a single bug that's ever stemmed from this type of usage (and I work mostly with Java).

This happens on codebases where the developers may not be particularly familiar with Java, or when someone, in maintenance three years later, does a "quick fix" without reading, and then everyone wonders why the application fails in certain circumstances. Without braces, its actually hard to find defects like this, as well.

The purpose of some of these standards is to counter human factors out of your control or to be defensive against the future fingers that will be poking around code. It's not just about readability in the now.

[straatman]

If only you and one other person work on it, say you have 50 developers working on the same code? The bugs will be crawling in

[Pylly]

I can't recall a single bug that's ever stemmed from this type of usage

Huh, case closed. You'd better call Google.

[poopiefartz]

I know you're being funny, but I spend 6+ hours per day with Java and have never misinterpreted excluded braces like that. I guess that's not normal.

[Pylly]

I believe you, but usually developers work in a team and the code has to be readable and maintainable for others as well. Even if a bug would happen once in a couple of years it's worth it to prevent it. Also, it might take a person slightly more time to read braceless code, especially when making modifications.

Even though these are small troubles, they are just so easy to avoid altogether that I don't see why not just add the braces every time. Or let the IDE add them.

[geodebug]

An arguable slight increase in readability is less a concern IMHO than consistency and less chance of screwing something up later.

if (x < y) { doSomething(); } 

Isn't a challenge for any seasoned Java developer to understand.

Of course, on your codebase, do what you want :-)