[SOLVED] Presentation of code, to indent or not to indent

:confused:

I have been trawling though books and over the web, can the more experienced programmers give me their opinion please

if else statements are generally not indented?

all other if's are?

are there any other good techniques in programming regarding presentation of code.

I am in my first year at college and they just say indent, but with all the information out there its kind of confusing with conflicting opinion.

Thanks in advance!!

From the horse's mouth:
Code Conventions for the Java(TM) Programming Language: Contents

db

Thanks, I was getting very confused

I can't say I'm an estemed programmer yet, but from my experience I typically indent any block of code. If you have a lot of nested if statements or loops, you may want to reconsider how much you indent or whether doing it at all is necessary (especially if you want to print your code on paper, or paste it somewhere (like these forums) that has width limits). For those cases, I sometimes just wrap the lines around after commas and the like.

Code:

---


for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
        for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
                if(true)
                {
                        if(true)
                        {
                                if(true)
                                {
                                        //more code here
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}

//In my opinion, that usually looks more presentable than this:

for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
if(true)
{
if(true)
{
if(true)
{
//more code here
}
}
}
}
}

---

I've noticed a lot of people put the { right after the statements, rather than on the next line. I personally prefer putting it on a new line, just makes things easier for me to read.

Code:

---


for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{

}

//I use that, rather than this:

for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){

}

//Just personal preference, I suppose.

---

Thanks I am a little clearer now

I think everyone should do it as they like it.
Its a personal style. Its what makes us unique.

Maybe but advice from someone with more programming experienced never hurt.

Thanks

I much prefer spaces to tabs when indenting as the result is more predictable and a tab is often rendered as a very wide space in a browser.

Also, tangential to your question but it bears repeating: indented blocks should be marked off with braces. Choose any of the placement conventions, but use braces even for one line blocks.

Actually, I might start using like 2 spaces rather than tabs. Hmm...