When working with namespaces such as System.Data.Odbc or System.Data.OracleClient the various data reader methods generally require an integer corresponding to a column be provided to the functions (e.g. OracleDataReader.GetInt32). My question is this, what is the best way to work with these functions so that the code is fairly self-do...
Ultimately, code compiles down (eventually) into instructions for a CPU. Code, however, (in my humble opinion) is for human beings to read, update, and interact with. This leads me to the following observation: Code that is unreadable by other engineers, even if it's functional, is bad code. With that in mind, what can this programmer...
If you enable the "View Right Margin" in your IDE of choice, it is likely that it will default to 80 characters. I tend to change it to 120 for no reason other than it was the standard at a company I was with a few years back, and no other company has told me to do it differently. My question is, are there any studies that actually sho...
Consider this line: if (object.getAttribute("someAttr").equals("true")) { // .... Obviously this line is a potential bug, the attribute might be null and we will get a NullPointerException. So we need to refactor it to one of two choices: First option: if ("true".equals(object.getAttribute("someAttr"))) { // .... Second option: S...
Say you're making a blog software, and want to show the number of comments an entry got. You might do it this way: [Entry title] [Content........] [ <?php print($numComments;) ?> Comments] Which might result in: [Entry title] [Content........] 5 Comments But if an entry had only 1 comment, I want the line to say 'Comment' rather th...
In a situation where a variable could have two different values, and you do something if its one, something differnent if its the other, would you just do: if(myVariable == FIRST_POSSIBLE_VALUE) { ... } else { ... } or would you do: if(myVariable == FIRST_POSSIBLE_VALUE) { ... } else if (myVariable == SECOND_POSSIBLE_VALUE) { ... } ...
I have seen many people uses base16 numbers in code where a base10 number is more readable. Here is a c# code. byte[] b = new byte[0x1000]; For me the below is more readable, byte[] b = new byte[4096]; Is there any good reason for using base16 numbers or is it a matter of preference? ...
I often find myself with an Option[T] for some type T and wish to test the value of the option against some value. For example: val opt = Some("oxbow") if (opt.isDefined && opt.get == "lakes") //do something The following code is equivalent and removes the requirement to test the existence of the value of the option if (opt.map(_...
I have a section of code that looks like this: try { classVar = functionCall(input, sEnum.First); classVar = functionCall(input, sEnum.Second); classVar = functionCall(input, sEnum.Third); } catch (Exception ex) { Debug.Assert(false, ex.ToString()); } However my exception dosent show which specific call it came from. The sta...
In C++ functions needed to be declared before they were called. This could be worked around with function signatures but for the most part this is no longer required in newer programming languages, C#, Python, ETC. However, while reading other peoples, code and when having to structure functions in a class, I find that I miss the consis...
Hi All, Everyone knows the advantages of a more readable code. So in order to make my code more readable what i do normally is include the commented class declaration in the implementation file of that class. This way i need not have to browse through various include directories to go to the definition. So, Is this a good practice or ju...
I recently read in Code Complete that the recommended way of handling expressions that involve numbers is to order them like a number line. The book has 2 examples: if ( (MIN_ELEMENTS <= i) && (i <= MAX_ELEMENTS) ) if ( (i < MIN_ELEMENTS) || (MAX_ELEMENTS < i ) ) With the first example showing that i is between the min and max elem...
Hi everyone, I'm trying to clean up this ridonkulously ugly method here, that's crying out for refactoring, but I'm not sure what kind of structure would do this best (i.e. a case statement, or simply a carefully formatted if then statements) At first glance, it looks like it would be an ideal place for a case statement with a few well...
if (false == x) { ...} as opposed to: if (!x) { ... } and if (false == f1()) { ...} as opposed to: if (!f1()) { ... } I think the if(false == ... version is more readable. Do you agree, or have another trick you can propose? Will it be just as fast? Thanks. This is why I do not like !x: if (25 == a->function1(12345, 6789) &&...
Code Complete book suggested, it is a good practice to use meaningful names for loop control variables. For example: for(int month=0; month < MONTHS_PER_YEAR; month++){ // processing } Instead of single letters for example for(int i=0; i < MONTHS_PER_YEAR; i++){ // processing } I follow this practice and use meanin...
i wonder where i should put the & properly. $b =& $a; or $b = &$a; ...
Hello, all :) I'm looking for a tool that works on Windows to reformat some C++ code in my codebase. Essentially, I've got some code I wrote a while ago that I'd like to use, but it doesn't match the style I'm using in a more recent project. What's the best way to reformat C++ code in a standard manner? Billy3 ...
As I'm starting to put more tracing in my code, i'm realizing it adds a lot of clutter. I know Visual Studio allows you to hide and reveal code, however, i'd like to be able group code into "tracing" code and then hide it and reveal at will as i'm reading the code. I suppose it could do this either per file or per class or per function. ...
Before you ignore / vote-to-close this question, I consider this a valid question to ask because code clarity is an important topic of discussion, it's essential to writing maintainable code and I would greatly appreciate answers from those who have come across this before. I've recently run into this problem, LINQ queries can get prett...
I came across a C# language feature today courtesy of ReSharper, the ?? operator. This helped make the code even more concise than my initial attempt. See below for iteration in improving lines/length/readability of code. A first attempt could be something like.. if (usersEmail == null) userName = firstName; else userName = usersEm...