CPSC 120B: Fundamentals of Computer Science I
Fall 2009: Code Conventions

1. Classes
   • Class names should be descriptive
   • Class names should nouns with the first letter of each word capitalized (but with no spaces) and be descriptive
2. Comments:
   • Java files should contain a comment at the top with the file name, author, and purpose of the file
   • Methods should have a comment at the top with a description of the purpose of the method
   • Each variable declaration should have an end of line comment describing the purpose of the variable
3. Formatting:
   • Opening curly braces can be on the end of a line, or on the next line indented the same as the above line
   • Closing curly braces should be indented the same as the line that contains the opening curly brace it is paired with
   • All lines of code inbetween an opening and closing curly brace should be indented one more than the lines containing the opening and closing curly braces
   • All lines of code of a case in a switch statement, should be indented one more time than the line with the case
   • All lines should be 80 characters or less
4. Sections:
   • Code should be separated into small logical sections using blank lines
   • Sections of code should have a comment above them that describes the purpose of the sections
   • Sections of code should not be longer than 20 lines (and should probably be shorter)
5. Variables:
   • Variable names should be descriptive
   • Variable names should begin with a lower case letter with the each subsiquent word capitalized (but with no spaces)
   • Constant variable names should be in all capital letters with each word separated with an underscore character
   • All variabes should be declared at the beginning of a block of code (a block of code is contained in curly braces)
6. Spacing:
   • Binary operators (+, -, *, /, %) should have spaces in between them and their operands.
   • Except for the the . operator, it should not have spaces on either side
   • Unary operators (-, ++, --) should not have spaces in between them and their operands
   • Except for cast operators, they should have a space after them
   • There should be a space between conditional operators (if, else, switch) and the opening parenthesis
   • If opening curly braces are not alone on a line there should be a space between it and the rest of the code on the line
7. Other:
   • Avoid using literal values (use constants instead)
   • All if and else statements should use curly braces