What is the proper way to format code?

Question

When I write code, I try to group lines of similar code together, then leave a blank line and write another block.

I believe this contributes to the neatness and readability of the code.

I'm not a big fan of bunching stuff together without any line spacing. It looks like hell, it's hard to read and it's difficult to follow.

One of the teachers I had, downgraded one of my assignments because I had spaced my code logically. He said, 'When you have to read code all day in the real world, you won't put this line spacing in and you'll be thanking me." Of course, I never did and never will thank him.

Now that I'm in the real world, most of the code files I see that have absolutely no line spacing are poorly written and poorly thought out.

This is probably more prevelant in VB type languages than in C type languages, but the same concept applies.

Two questions come to mind:

• Where do you leave a blank line in your code?
• How much line spacing is too much?

Answer 1

I consider code as an article. Have you ever tried to read 2 pages of article which has no paragraph or line spacing in it?

I agree with you, not having line spaces between logical groups is just insane.

Answer 2

Vertical space is usually at a premium relative to horizontal space, so excessive spacing usually isn't a good idea. I do think it's a good idea to logically separate blocks of code with a single blank line.

Sounds like your teacher is mostly a jerk. As the saying goes, "those who can, do; those who can't are on StackOverflow teach." ;)

Answer 3

I'm not going to begin to suggest any specifics. There are plenty of good suggestions here and elsewhere on the interweb.

But I would say be consistent. At least within an application or module - since I know I refine my approach from time to time, but I try to keep all code in the same places looking the same.

If you are consistent, it's easy enough for any other developer to pick your tempo and style.

Answer 4

It sounds like I space lines of code similar to you.

But this is an irrelevant, personal preference and everybody is going to have thier own 'right way' to do it. The most important thing, IMHO, is to adapt the style of the environment you are going into.

Also, you will find code like this in the 'real world' ... but it sounds like you have higher aspirations. ;-)

EDIT: ... not higher aspirations than the 'real world', but higher than the mediocre crap common in the 'real world'. ... if you do happen to have higher aspirations than the 'real world' however, you might want to see a professional. ;-)

Answer 5

I think I do something similar, but there are no hard rules. I like code to spaced in 'paragraphs' of grouped/related logic.

Code with no extra line spaces is terrible to read.

Answer 6

I follow Microsoft's Guidelines for C#.

Edit: The standard for C# is Don't fight the IDE. If you hit CTRL K+D, the IDE will automatically put blank lines in between code sections.

To follow that up, if you look at C# sample code on MSDN or anywhere else, there's normally a blank line in between each logically placed group. So There will be a blank line after all your member variables, a blank line after each method, etc.

In response to the comments expressing shock and horror that I use an IDE for C# programming:

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REAL PROGRAMMERS