Pep 8 Style Guide For Python Code
Content
Documented interfaces are considered public, unless the documentation explicitly declares them to be provisional or internal interfaces exempt from the usual backwards compatibility guarantees. All undocumented interfaces should be assumed to be internal. Public attributes are those that you expect unrelated clients of your class to use, with your commitment to avoid backwards incompatible changes. Non-public attributes are those that are not intended to be used by third parties; you make no guarantees that non-public attributes won’t change or even be removed. Always use self for the first argument to instance methods. Identifiers used in the standard library must be ASCII compatible as described in thepolicy sectionof PEP 3131.
- The opening brace () should appear on the line following the one that begins the compound statement and indented to the beginning of the compound statement.
- Normally we strongly discourage the use of multiple implementation inheritance; however, it is required when using COM and some ATL/WTL classes.
- The method operator should always be put at the beginning of the next line.
- If a function exceeds about 40 lines, think about whether it can be broken up without harming the structure of the program.
To help you format code correctly, we’ve created asettings file for emacs. As a last resort, use comments to clarify argument meanings at the call site. Consider changing the function signature to replace a boolargument with an enum argument. Tricky or complicated code blocks should have comments before them. In general the actual name of the variable should be descriptive enough to give a good idea of what the variable is used for. Declaration comments describe use of the function (when it is non-obvious); comments at the definition of a function describe operation.
This kind of code isn’t technically an implicit conversion, but the language treats it as one as far as explicit is concerned. There is no easy way for constructors to signal errors, short of crashing the program or using exceptions . If the work calls virtual functions, these calls will not get dispatched to the subclass implementations.
Programming Recommendations
The main reason is that the cited guidelines are far too general in their scope and that more specific rules need to be established. Also, the present guide has an annotated form that makes it far easier to use during project code reviews than most other existing guidelines. In addition, programming recommendations generally tend to mix style issues with technical language issues in a somewhat confusing manner. The present document does not contain any C++ technical recommendations at all but focuses mainly on programming style. For guidelines on C++ programming practicesrefer to theC++ Programming Practice Guidelines. A team following a style guide helps everyone write code in a consistent way, and consistent code is easier to read and faster to update. Consistent code is easier to read and understand making it faster to add new features.
It is required to use the this object reference when accessing instance variables or calling non-static methods. Java assumes this in contexts where it is omitted; however, its explicit use removes any ambiguity.
Programming style guides are composed of rules and guidance. Rules are mandates, with very few exceptions, enforceable throughout the entire IT organization. Any violation to this guide is allowed if it enhances readability. The main goal of this recommendation is to improve readability and thereby the understanding and the maintainability and general quality of the code. It is impossible to cover all the specific cases in a general guide, and the programmer should be flexible.2.
There are rare cases where a file designed to be included is not self-contained. These are typically intended to be included at unusual locations, such as the middle of another file. They might not use header guards, and might not include their prerequisites. Use sparingly, and prefer self-contained headers when possible. The single-line form may be substituted when the entirety of the Javadoc block can fit on a single line. Note that this only applies when there are no block tags such as @return. A method is marked with the @Override annotation whenever it is legal.
It also explains the benefits of these guardrails, even if adherence means sacrificing some exciting functionality and curbing creative freedom. Trailing comments are also used to help clarify the closing brace of a compound statement (Section7.2). One example of this usage is at the end of a class declaration; the class name is placed in a trailing comment adjacent to the closing brace (Section6.5). Another example occurs when several long compound statements are nested; a trailing comment can be added adjacent to the closing brace of a compound statement to help clarify which block the brace closes. Short comments can appear on a single line indented to the level of the code that follows. If a comment can not be written in a single line, it should follow the block comment format (Section5.1.1).
This allows people to remove no-longer-needed #include statements from their headers without breaking clients. This also applies to related headers – foo.cc should include bar.h if it uses a symbol from it even if foo.hincludes bar.h.
1 Implementation Comments
Unfortunately, although the use of private or protected variables makes their access impossible for the user, the user can still read implementation details and make his conclusions from them. For each change of the implementation, the header file, that is, the interface, would then have to be changed. Instead, access methods should be used.Note that structs are kept in C++ for compatibility with C only, and avoiding them increases the readability of the code by reducing the number of constructs used. Every object has a storage duration, which correlates with its lifetime.
If a JavaScript statement does not fit on one line, the best place to break it, is after an operator or a comma. You should also read the next chapter “Best Practices”, and learn how to avoid coding pitfalls. Coding conventions can be documented rules for teams to follow, or just be your individual coding practice. Rules for the use of white space, indentation, and comments.
Return Values
Therefore, you should avoid using meaningless words such as Util in file names. Code should be designed in an efficient, consistent and intuitive manner such that comments enhance user understanding but are not needed to describe the entire code. Normally we strongly discourage the use of multiple implementation inheritance; however, it is required when using COM and some ATL/WTL classes. You may use multiple implementation inheritance to implement COM or ATL/WTL classes and interfaces. When referring to a pointer or reference , you may place the space before or after the asterisk/ampersand. In the trailing-space style, the space is elided in some cases .
Subroutines and variables meant to be treated as private are prefixed with an underscore. Package names are camel case excepting pragmata—e.g., strict and mro—which are lowercase. Constants may optionally be prefixed with a lowercase letter “k” like kCFBooleanTrue. The choice of naming conventions is often a contentious issue, with partisans holding their viewpoint to be the best and others to be inferior. Moreover, even with known and well-defined naming conventions in place, some organizations may fail to consistently adhere to them, causing inconsistency and confusion.
“Interface inheritance” is inheritance from a pure abstract base class ; all other inheritance is “implementation inheritance”. If the class has no private section, like a struct or an interface-only base class, then the copyability/movability can be determined by the copyability/movability of any public data members. Move operations allow the implicit and efficient transfer of resources out of rvalue objects. Type conversion operators, and constructors that are callable with a single argument, must be markedexplicit in the class definition.
A single-line comment should be preceded by a blank line unless it comes immediately after the start of a compound statement (Section7.2). In general, a naming convention provides a set of rules for choosing the sequence of characters to identify variables, functions, and other elements within code or its documentation. This doesn’t make a difference for a simple case like int but it matters for more complicated cases, like types declared in class scope or types written in terms of the function parameters. A type should not be copyable/movable if the meaning of copying/moving is unclear to a casual user, or if it incurs unexpected costs. If your type provides copy operations, it is recommended that you design your class so that the default implementation of those operations is correct.
And Comments
Names that are visible to the user as public parts of the API should follow conventions that reflect usage rather than implementation. The Python standard library is conservative and requires limiting lines to 79 characters (and docstrings/comments to 72). In the event of any conflicts, such project-specific guides take precedence for that project. If you’re using Python, start with docstrings, or use a more comprehensive tool like Doxygen when writing your comments (also works for C++, Java and more).
Trailing commas are entirely optional – your code will still work without them. The Kotlin style guide encourages the use of trailing commas at the declaration site and leaves it at your discretion for the call site.
