Jeune has a fascination for building and solving things. His interests include Algorithms, Development Practices and Software Design. When not immersed in his passions, he spends time experimenting in the kitchen. Jose is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 10 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website. View Full User Profile

Code Aesthetics

05.23.2012
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  • This is my first post on Code Aesthetics, a new topic I am exploring. My objective is to come up with a catalog of coding styles that are easy to read. My belief is that there is a direct correlation between maintainability of code and the way it is written.

    This style is simple: if hard coding some values in an array, simply align them according to =>

    • Align by arrows – If initializing an array with one level, align the arrows according to =>.
      $result = array(
         'include_path' => array(),
         'ini'          => array(),
         'const'        => array(),
         'var'          => array(),
         'env'          => array(),
         'post'         => array(),
         'get'          => array(),
         'cookie'       => array(),
         'server'       => array(),
         'files'        => array(),
         'request'      => array()
      );
      
    Update: only do this if the way the array is instantiated is all the same like the example above. However if they are not such as the one below, I think it’s better to go easy on the spacey.

     

    if (in_array( $rCategory, array_keys($categories) ) ) {
       $category = $categories[$rCategory];
    else {
       $category = array(
          'name' => $rCategory,
          'articles' => array()		  
       );
    }	
    

     

    Seen on PHPUnit1, 2

  • Easy on the spacey – For nested arrays, I think it’s better to go easy on the indention spaces. This means not using the tab k
  • ey and instead just using the space bar. I find that the editors I use (vim and eclipse) seem to adapt just fine.

    Here’s a simple example from one of my projects:

     

    $this->assertEquals(array(
       'Sentosa' => array(
          'Beaches' => 1,
          'Rides'   => 2
        ),
        'Asia Malls' => array(
          'Tampines' => 3,
          'Hougang'  => 4
        )	
    ),  $walls );	
    

    A more complicated one:

    $this->assertEquals(array(
       'application_id' => 1,
       'articles' => array(
          array(
            'name' => 'Beaches',
    	'articles' => array(
    	   array(
              'content' => $this->_getContent(1)
              .
              .
              .
    

    Seen on PHPUnit 1

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