If you are looking for this information, you are at the right place. In this post of Clicks Bazaar, we are going to share the Best Coding Practices with all those who want to learn coding or are learning coding. After reading this topic, you might wonder how one can have good or bad coding practices. And what does following these Best Coding Practices make in coding? All your doubts are going to get answered here in this post.
What is a good code?
You might be wondering how to distinguish between a good code and a bad code when both of them do similar things. Well, good code means writing a piece of code which executes/completes the task in the minimum time and with the minimum possible server requests.
What are the advantages of a good code?
A good code can do wonders for your development project by saving you loads of time and cost. This is beneficial for both the development company and the client. The development company can deliver the project before the quoted time, as following the best coding practices can speed up the development a lot and reduce the chances of getting bugs. The client can be happy as following the best coding practices can significantly reduce the cost of development and, in turn, save money for the client. Thus writing efficient code following the best coding practices offers a win-win situation for both the development company and the client.
What are the Best Coding Practices?
After going through the above information, you all might be wondering about what the best coding practices really are. Here are the best coding practices for writing efficient code, and it’s imperative to follow them to deliver the best results.
[message style=”success”]Use Comments[/message]
Commenting on the code at regular intervals to explain what the code below is doing is a good practice. It not only helps the developer remember what the code was about in the long run but is also of great help if some other developer/web company takes over the project in the long run.
But remember that code commenting is beneficial but avoid commenting on too obvious things. It is not required. It can slow down the work. There is a very fine line of separation between good code commenting practices and bad code commenting practices. The images below will explain the same better. The first image is an example of bad code commenting practice where even the most obvious code lines are commented on. This is a bad practice and leads to an increase in development time. The second image shows how an optimum code commenting should be.
[message style=”success”]Use Indentation[/message] Indented code helps you to close the loops properly and mark the beginning and end of loops and modules clearly. Improper indentation can lead to some severe coding issues if many loops are involved, or deep nesting is there. Indentation is one of those practices that should be followed from the very beginning. It helps to prevent errors and speed up work in both small and big projects. The image below gives an example of a good indentation.
[message style=”success”]Avoid Deep Nesting and very complex loops[/message] Deep nesting and very complex loops should be avoided in a code. They can actually make debugging an issue.
[message style=”success”]Write proper documentation[/message] Proper documentation of the written code with a short description of what each of the modules/functions does is a great practice. It helps to simplify things in the long run. Say if a new team member is added for the development project or if the whole team is changed, the new team members can just go through the documentation and can start working on the project. It can actually save a lot of time and cost for big projects.
[message style=”success”]Use a mixture of Object oriented Programming and Procedural Programming[/message] Whether to use Object Oriented Programming or Procedural Programming is one of the biggest doubts in the mind of the developers. Though many people say that the use of Object Oriented Programming is better, there is no hard and fast rule for that. Often a mixture of both object oriented programming and Procedural programming works the best rather than using a single technique for development.
[message style=”success”]Proper Code Refactoring[/message] Refactoring the code is also a very good coding practice. Refactoring is nothing but cleaning the code to make it shout and clean. In refactoring, we don’t add any new functionality to the code but try to make the existing code as robust and clean as possible. It can be either by making functions of the most often used code and calling it everywhere or by replacing the redundant lines of code with loops. Refactoring is often done at the end of development though some people do it with the course of development as well. It’s on the developer when he is comfortable doing it, but refactoring is a coding practice that should not be avoided. It makes the code look very clean and makes it efficient.
[message style=”success”]Use consistent naming scheme[/message] Following a consistent naming scheme, i.e. naming the variables and functions, is a great practice; if you are used to a naming scheme, there are fewer chances of you making a call of that variable/function name. Also, use names that are obvious and make sense of what the variable/function does.
[message style=”success”]Follow the standards[/message]. If there is any standard for the development you are doing, always follow them. For e.g., always follow the W3 standards for the development of websites. Following the standards help in the proper validation of the code. Though it makes no difference in the working of your website, it’s a good practice to follow it.
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