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Programming style is often dependent on the actual choice of programming language one is writing in. C style will vary from BASIC style, and so on.
Good style, being a subjective matter, is difficult to concretely categorize; however, there are a number of general characteristics.
Appropriate choices for variable names is seen as the keystone for good style. Poorly-named variables make code harder to read and understand.
For example, consider the following pseudocode snippet:
get a b c if a < 12 and b < 60 and c < 60 return true else return falseBecause of the choice of variable names, the function of the code is difficult to work out. However, if the variable names are made more descriptive:
get hours minutes seconds if hours < 12 and minutes < 60 and seconds < 60 return true else return falsethe code's intent is easier to discern, namely, "Given a 24-hour time, true will be returned if it is in the morning and false otherwise."
with something like
if(hours<12&&minutes<60&&seconds<60){return true;} else{return false;}The first example is much easier to read because it is indented well, and logical blocks of code are grouped and displayed together more clearly.
The use of logical control structures for looping adds to good programming style as well. It helps someone reading code to understand the program's sequence of execution (in imperative programming languages). For example, in pseudocode:
count = 0 while count < 5 print count * 2 count = count + 1 endwhileThe above snippet obeys the two aforementioned style guidelines, but however the following using the "for" construct makes the code much easier to read:
for count = 0, count < 5, count=count+1 print count * 2Compare the following examples of C code.
int count;for(count=0;count<10;count++){printf("%d",count*count+count);}with
int count; for (count = 0; count < 10; count++) { printf("%d", count * count + count); } Python forces the use of indentation to mark control structures. By doing this, the need for bracketing with curly braces ({ and }) is eliminated, and readability is improved while not interfering with common coding styles. However, some programmers do not like being forced to use a style they didn't choose.See also: identifier naming convention, hrair limit, computer bug
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