How do you organize your code?

Question

I'm not referring to the indentation or the directory structure but the actual file itself.

Do you arrange your members and methods alphabetically? Maybe in their order of use or order of complex logic (either ascending or descending)? Is there any rhyme to your madness?

I'm thinking about making the switch to alphabetically but some situations would just madden me:

var _height
var _properties
var _width

width and height should definitely be grouped together... but sometimes finding the right method in a larger file can be pretty disheartening.

What do you do?

Answer 1

I tend to be disorganized. I certainly don't arrange my variables alphabetically. And with C#, I am even less organized because some variables I use stuff_like_this, and with properties I might DoItLikeThis. It kind of drives me mad at times, but in the end I like letting the IDE features do the work for me. Visual Studio is incredibly nice, and being able to just right click on a variable to go to its definition, or see everywhere in the code that it's being used is downright awesome. I don't know what IDE you use, but hopefully it's got similar features. In the end, I care less about the organization and really need to worry if my design is fundamentally sound (and that part usually takes me a few tries to get right).

Answer 2

I would suggest not trying to apply any sweeping general rules to your code. Rather, on a case-by-case basis, organize it in a way that makes sense. In the example you give, purely alphabetical would not make sense. In other cases, it would.

Answer 3

Methods: public first, then private. Methods which are related (e.g. getHeight(), getWidth(), getArea()) are placed near each other. If there is a hierarchal relationship between methods, then high-level before the low level (e.g. getArea() uses getWidth() so it's placed before it)

variables: similar to functions, public first, then private. Grouped according to context.

Alphabetical? I don't like it. It can be a nightmare when reading / modifying the code. I cannot tell whether a function's name is sqrt() or calculateSqrt(), so I won't enjoy looking for it. If the functions are organized according to context, it will be much easier to find them.

Answer 4

Generally order the members by their nature (constants, fields, constructors, methods) and then by their visibility (private, protected, public).

For finding the right thing I rely a lot on a modern IDE's capabilities (e.g. Visual Studio + Resharper)

Answer 5

Functions are topologically sorted with the "root" at the bottom of the file.

Variables hardly matter -- if a single "unit" (function, class, etc.) has enough variables for their arrangement to mean anything, that's probably something that needs fixing in itself.

Answer 6

I organize my code is by type of the elements, meaning that all the methods are at one place (at the end of the file, that is), all the constructor in one (before methods), etc. The same goes for variables, constants, enums etc. Usually I place private variables first and others after them, but that's not a strict rule. Also by nature code related to each other often ends up at the same place, but that's just because it is easiest.
I don't bother keeping my code in alphabetical order as I do that easily in the Eclipse outline view. However, if the editor does not support this, then I might use alphabetical order. Well, at least for bigger files.