Studies on optimal code width?

Question

If you enable the \"View Right Margin\" in your IDE of choice, it is likely that it will default to 80 characters. I tend to change it to 120 for no reason other than it was th

Answer 1

I normally use 120-150 unless the company describes otherwise. However it depends also on the kind of code:

• I (almost) never use multiple statements on one line
• I only use long lines (>12) only if lines that look similar can be aligned and not broken.
• I always use enough spaces/parenthesis etc
• I prefer longer variables names above shorter names

Until a few years ago I limited to 100 but now widescreens are normally used and high resolution monitors 120 can be even seen on laptops (which I barely use).

Comparing a screen to a book is not really good because a book has more vertical space and a screen has more horizontal space. I always try to keep a function max. one visible screen long.