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

Use little methods, in order to have a low cyclomatic complexity. High cyclomatic complexity in methods generally means that your method must be divided into several others sub methods, which will be more easier to read, and more easier to test!

I think that your code is facing this kind of problem.

Generally, a method with 100+ lines is too big and too complex, and then must be refactored.

To summarize, instead of breaking code with line spaces, break it into separate methods...

Answer 2

Spaces help to make your code more readable and I think the consensus here is that they are not for the most part a bad idea. But nobody seems to have pointed out that along with the blank line a comment may not be amiss.

/* This section preps the widgets for display */
block 
of some 
code

/* This section passes the widgets to the display handler */
and 
so 
on

Remember most code will be read many times over it’s life so anything you can do to make life easier for future maintainers is a great plus.

Answer 3

Basically the same thing as everyone else is saying. COBOL had very distinct rules about what a sentence and a paragraph was. I guess, in the back of my mind, I follow those. If you have a large IF statement, you didn't put a period until the very end of the nest. Similarly, I put a blank line after my last } // end if

And yes, I put the // end if, // end for, // end method stuff in there. Some of the more vocal people I know don't like it, but I like it. They say you shouldn't make your if-statements huge and that you're probably coding wrong if you NEED the // end if stuff, and I don't NEED it, but I do find it makes it easier to read. Call me old fashioned, OCD, whatever.

Answer 4

1) I agree with you about line spacing

2) In my office there's a lot of lack of line spacing because "you get to see more of the code on one page that way." They also put multiple statements on one line, and over (IMHO) use ?:... I hate it.

3) I do disagree with the phrase "That's why he is a teacher". as an (ex) teacher, I have to say that I would downgrade people for NOT putting space between sections before I took off points for putting space. I don't think I did either. My point is that him being an ass is orthogonal to his being a teacher. (EDIT: that section got edited from the original, but I'm leaving it here to maintain the rule of 3...)

Don't malign teachers!