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Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

You're reading from   Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners Learn essential computer science concepts and coding techniques to kick-start your programming career

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Product type Paperback
Published in Jul 2020
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781839216862
Length 430 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Joakim Wassberg Joakim Wassberg
Author Profile Icon Joakim Wassberg
Joakim Wassberg
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Table of Contents (19) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1: Introduction to Computer Programs and Computer Programming
2. Chapter 1: Introduction to Computer Programs FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Introduction to Programming Languages 4. Chapter 3: Types of Applications 5. Chapter 4: Software Projects and How We Organize Our Code 6. Section 2: Constructs of a Programming Language
7. Chapter 5: Sequence – The Basic Building Block of a Computer Program 8. Chapter 6: Working with Data – Variables 9. Chapter 7: Program Control Structures 10. Chapter 8: Understanding Functions 11. Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong – Bugs and Exceptions 12. Chapter 10: Programming Paradigms 13. Chapter 11: Programming Tools and Methodologies 14. Section 3: Best Practices for Writing High-Quality Code
15. Chapter 12: Code Quality 16. Other Books You May Enjoy Appendix A: How to Translate the Pseudocode into Real Code 1. Appendix B: Dictionary

Code quality – best practices

As stated earlier in this chapter, what we focus on here is the quality of the code, not the quality of the user experience when using our applications.

When writing code, there are some things we can keep in mind to make our code better, quality-wise.

We will look at some best practices and talk about why it is a good idea to use them.

Limiting line length

Long lines are never a good idea. Look at any newspaper and think about why the text hardly ever runs on one line across the full width of the page:

Figure 12.18 – A newspaper uses columns to limit the line length. Photo by Wan Chen on Unsplash

Figure 12.18 – A newspaper uses columns to limit the line length. Photo by Wan Chen on Unsplash

A rule of thumb is that if the line is wider than what can fit on the screen, then it is too wide. Use your common sense and divide the code into several lines if needed, but do so in a way that makes sense.

Take a look at the following screenshot. The code shown here is just one single statement and...

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