Computer code is a collection of skillfully written data which is used in the development of computer programs for various applications. This code is supposed to be written in a specific way such that both the computer and other human beings can understand it. People are required to follow for purposes of program maintenance or addition of additional features which can be very tough if the code is complicated and hard to comprehend. Coders learn to strike this balance of writing efficient code which can be easily understood or modified by another person and doing its intended purpose correctly over time. Experience is vital because this required efficiency can come at the expense of the programs functionality or vice versa in beginner coders; however, with practice, these guys write code perfectly.
There are various features which coders can include in their code to help them come up with cleaner code, and some of these features are:
The inclusion of comments on your code. Comments can be very beneficial to a secondary party in explaining the purpose of a complex function or events that need to follow a particular order for optimum functionality. The coders should, however, be careful to avoid over commenting, which will result in the whole code being messy. Nevertheless, they should only focus on areas which comments are necessary for the description of functions which would otherwise be hard to understand.
The automation of code if lines of code are repeated over three times. Having a lot of lines of the same code repeated over and over not only makes it harder to read but increases the probability of an error being made during the repetition. Automation eliminates unnecessary long lines and makes the code easier to understand or modify.
The use of naming conventions- this is the engagement specific preset rules in the choosing of characters which are used to represent variables in the code. Naming conventions are efficient compared to freedom by the programmers to choose any character preferred by them because they make the code easier to read and understand. Furthermore, the code quality tool which is used for reviews can focus on reporting crucial issues on the code rather than the programmer’s preference of style and syntax. This set of rules is also essential for ensuring that codes written by different organizations or programmers don’t collide when such works are combined.
Whitespace- these are the various sections of the document which are unused when writing of the code. It is monotonous to try and read code which has been written with no spaces all through the script. Generally, it is advisable for programmers to separate the chunks of code into logical sections when they are writing a lot of information together in a single block. The denotation of these sections and separation by whitespace would make it easily accessible during the review of a specific line in the sea of code, mainly if it was written by someone else.
The bigger the project which is being handled, the more the number of variables which will be used in the development of the code. Many variables necessitate the declaration of variables together often at the top of the page to make it easier when searching for something in the code.
Furthermore, despite the grouping of these variables together, it is advisable to write them in a way which makes it easier to understand. The program developer should also consider avoiding variables which have misleading names; the names should not confuse the reader and should be clear about the purpose of the variable for improved efficiency of the final program.
