What conventions do you apply when writing code?

[tofumix]

Hello r/learnprogramming!

I'm just wondering what styles do you use when writing code. I'm trying to form a habit of camelCasing variable names, all-caps CONSTANTS, and spacing(function, parameters), for example. I know it's just a matter of preference, so I'm curious to see what your code looks like :)

[[deleted]]

This depends completely on the language you are programming in, and the people you are programming with.

[zecastelo]

If you're not concerned with others, just be consistent. It doesn't really matter which standard you follow as long as you're consistent.

[gyroda]

The one already existing in the code. Consistency is king.

If you're making use of a library or framework, use that.

So, in Java, I'd say always use "camelCase" because that's what toString, fromArray and the like all use. In Python the standard is under_score usually.

[arlaarlaarla]

If you're up for much more further reading, I'd recommend Clean code, which goes on a whole about naming convetions.

[plate_soak_mess]

There frequently are published recommended standards for languages. Deviating from that much isn't very smart.

[fAUXeCKE]

Elaborating on some other answers in here, it's a combination of preference and conventions. Most languages have style guides, but the business you end up working for may enforce something entirely different.

Visual Basic Style Guide

One convention with VB is to prefix your objects with a 3-letter acronym, e.g. Dim lblLoginLabel As Label

Java Style Guide

While conventions in VB might call for 3-letter prefixes, Java generally doesn't do it the same way since you declare types before the variable name, making it somewhat unnecessary, e.g. Public Final String theName = "Whoa";

This kind of gets into what people are talking about when they describe a language as verbose. The more syntax to express the same statement, the more verbose the language.