Re: Where To Find Resources About Programming Style (my bleedin' code is so darn ugly)

Hi there! This is my suggestion for code formatting/commenting/etc.: if ($var > 0 && ( // Shortcut, since your're not calling anything // that "does stuff" in the conditional. strlen($var) == strlen(intval($var)) || // String length is equal or one less strlen($var) - 1) == strlen(intval($var)) // than the length of its integer value )) { do stuff; // Then: Do stuff... } Btw, there are canonical texts on this topic, see the PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) web site: http://pear.php.net http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php I am using the following indentation (as opposed to PEAR): - One - and only one - tab 4 spaces wide for one level of indentation. - One tab througout the <?php ?>- tag. - if-statements: <?php if (condition) one_statement(); if (condition) one_statement(); else other_statement(); if (condition) one_statement(); elseif (condition) // or use: else if other_statement(); else anything(); if (condition) { // Multiple Statements } if (condition) { // Multiple Statements } else { // Multiple Statements } if (condition) { // Multiple Statements } else if (condition) { // Multiple Statements } else { // Multiple Statements } ?> - One blank line between variable declarations / inclusions: <?php $a = "don't know"; function do_stuff() { global $a; // use $a; } ?> You should also have a look at the operator precedence (this can be really annoying, but it saves you brackets - thus resulting in cleaner code). Its also always a good idea to comment your code (yes, that's annoying, too, but saves you _much_ time when resuming your work after a longer interruption / when working in a team). My suggestions for comments are as follows: <?php /* * Caption of a larger section or a function */ function do_stuff() { echo "Now, this does stuff..."; } ?> <?php /* Multi-line comment to explain why you do certain things the way you do them, if this belongs to a function call, then nicely arrange it to 80 chars on the right, otherwise leave it left-aligned to the indentation. */ do_stuff(); do_more_stuff(); ?> <?php // One line comment as the caption of a small code block // that doesn't need comments in each line; do_stuff(); do_more_stuff(); ?> <?php do_stuff(); // Longest comment right-aligned to 80 chars ||| do_more_stuff(); // But: "//" should be in one column. ?> Ok, sorry for this mega-posting, hope it helps. P.S.: Your code _always_ works? -Wow... -- Christian Blichmann _____________________________________________ don't hesitate - email me with your thoughts: e-mail: feedback.nospam@blichmann.de - please remove the ".nospam" from address. _____________________________________________ do you want to know more? web: http://www.blichmann.de