Are there any widespread, modern Java coding conventions? [closed]

Answer 1

Ray Ontko has a Bibliography of Java Coding Standards. But it would be difficult to identify any single standard as "widely adopted".

Answer 2

Consider using the one used by default by your IDE's reformatter mechanism. Will save you a lot of time in the long run.

We enable save actions in Eclipse and tick Format Source so the sources always are reformatted. This means that a reformat only changes things happened since last time the file was saved. Is nice in source control history.

You can naturally take your time and define your own format, but it tends to be easier just using the Eclipse standard - it is ok for us.

Answer 3

Four spaces - it's what God uses.

Answer 4

Official coding conventions are found at this URL: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/codeconvtoc-136057.html

Answer 5

The only coding standard you really need to follow is that as accepted by your project team. You might not agree with tabs instead of spaces, but if that is the coding convention of your team, you will do best to follow it.

Answer 6

BSD/Allman is the only decent indent style. It meets the basic rule of curly brackets - if they sit on different lines, they should sit on the same column. Even Horstmann is tolerable compared to K&R.

Always put curly brackets if you code in notepad. Otherwise, due to the auto-indenting features of your IDE, it is useless and annoying.