Style Guide

Adapted from Google JavaScript Style Guide.

These guidelines are expected to be followed in all submissions for Dana’s sections of CPSC 1520. If you have another instructor, please confirm with them what style guide they expect you to use: just like companies may use different style guides in industry.

Variables & Functions

  • Use const by default, or let when a variable needs to be reassigned.
  • Only one variable per declaration.
  • Variables are declared when needed (not all together at the start).
  • Arrow functions are preferred over the function keyword.

Names

  • File names must be in lowercase and with no punctuation other than underscores or dashes.
  • Use only letters and digits in your descriptive names, with appropriate capitalization:
    • Classes in PascalCase.
    • Methods, variables, and parameters in camelCase.
    • True constants in UPPERCASE_LETTERS, also known as SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE.

Punctuation

  • Semicolons are required for every statement.
  • Braces are used around structures even if they only contain a single statement. e.g. if, do, for, etc
    • Except: when the entire if statement fits on one line: 
        if(shortCondition()) doThing();
  • Use trailing commas e.g. for arrays that span multiple lines.
  • Use single quotes for string literals.

White Space

  • One statement per line.
  • The content of a structure is indented. e.g. the body of a function, switch, if, while, etc
  • Blank lines are used to create logical groupings of elements.
  • A single space is on both sides of binary and ternary operators, and //.
  • A single space follows a comma or semi-colon.

Misc.

  • Switch statements always include a default statement, even if it’s empty.
  • JSDoc is used on all classes, fields, and methods.