How to indent?

[federer]

 public class printCards
{
public static void main (String []args)
{
int x = 0; // keeps count of how many card
final int MAXCARDS = 20; // maximum number of cards

while (x < MAXCARDS)
{

Card card = new Card(); //creates a card called card
String result = card.cardGeneration(); //generates a random card
System.out.println(result); //prints name of card
x++;
}
}
}

All this time I haven't been indenting... I've looked at examples but how do I indent this one?

[Junky]

What do you mean? Indent your code or indent the output?

[federer]

Indent the code... here is what I did. Is it correct?

public class printCards
{

    public static void main (String []args)
    {
    int x = 0; // keeps count of how many card
    final int MAXCARDS = 20; // maximum number of cards

    while (x < MAXCARDS)
    {

    Card card = new Card(); //creates a card called card
    String result = card.cardGeneration(); //generates a random card
    System.out.println(result); //prints name of card
    x++;
    }
    }
}

[Junky]

You indent your code when you type it into your IDE. When posting it here, you copy and paste the code and wrap it it in code tags. This will preserve any indentation.

[federer]

I know, but did I do it right?

Did I indent it correctly?

[Junky]

Does it look right?

[JeffGrigg]

There is no absolute rule of "correct" or "incorrect" formatting.

Normally one does indent further for each '{ ... }' block. You did not do that.

This is what Eclipse likes:

public class printCards {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int x = 0; // keeps count of how many card
		final int MAXCARDS = 20; // maximum number of cards

		while (x < MAXCARDS) {

			Card card = new Card(); // creates a card called card
			String result = card.cardGeneration(); // generates a random card
			System.out.println(result); // prints name of card
			x++;
		}
	}
}

More important issues might be...

1. Class names should start with a capitol letter.
2. MAXCARDS would make more sense as a 'static' class field.
3. Think of a better name for the variable "x". (I might call it "cardIdx". But I'm not saying that this is the best possible name.)

[kjkrum]

There's no single "correct" way to indent. You can use spaces or tabs. If you use spaces, use enough spaces to clearly distinguish the nesting depth, but no so many that code frequently runs past the right side of the screen. Most people use 3-5. There are also different ways to use brackets. I pesonally use this:

void someMethod() {
    ...
}

Some people do this:

void someMethod()
{
    ...
}

It doesn't really matter as long as you are consistent.

I also have a personal policy of always either using brackets around conditional blocks, or putting an entire conditional statement on one line. I never do this:

if(condition)
    statement;

Because it's too easy to do this:

if(condition)
    statement;
    statement; // looks like part of the conditional, but it's not

The link in my sig has some tips about naming.

[pbrockway2]

For what it's worth here are Sun/Oracle's coding standards. I haven't read them for a while, but I think that what they describe is what I do.