The curley bracket!

[RedSon]

Where do you put it?

Like this

if (...){
//blah blah
}

or like this

if(...)
{
//blah blah blah
}

Let the debate begin!!!

[MMcCarthy]

The second way of course. Never understood why anyone changed it. It's the only way (with indenting of course) that you can keep track of the opening and closing of brackets in nested statements. This was clearly a case of someone trying to change a standard that didn't need to be changed.

Mary

[RedSon]

The first way saves a line of whitespace. And the closing bracket lines up with the command.

see?

   if {
   }

   case {
   }

   while {
   }

I prefer to do it the second way myself. (just playing the devils advocate).

[MMcCarthy]

If it were that easy there wouldn't be so many questions posted on this site that are solved by fixing the use of brackets.

Why is it so important to save a line of whitespace?

[RedSon]

Because it saves on lines of code, makes it easier to print, and saves pain and agony on page-up and page-down buttons.

[MMcCarthy]

Because it saves on lines of code, makes it easier to print, and saves pain and agony on page-up and page-down buttons.

This goes back to the IDE argument. Back in my day ... creak, creak ...
we coded on unix or dos and printed out on dot matrix printers. We didn't have these concerns.

[AricC]

In school we called the indenting a great way of showing variable scope. If prefer to indent keeps things readable!

Aric

[AricC]

Here is another debate what do you like:

intIndex++

Or

intIndex += 1

I prefer the +=

Aric

[Killer42]

Doesn't this debate (or perhaps I should now say these debates) belong in a language-specific forum? My guess would be Java. As a (part-time, unofficial) VB developer, I don't have any great preference in the use of curly brackets.

[MMcCarthy]

Doesn't this debate (or perhaps I should now say these debates) belong in a language-specific forum? My guess would be Java. As a (part-time, unofficial) VB developer, I don't have any great preference in the use of curly brackets.

These questions are cross language although they are C based as many of the languages are C based. It's not really a technical question in my opinion as it is actually a question of standardisation rather than syntax. The issue of standardisation is a developers discussion rather than a language specific one. I think this issue can extend to naming conventions, as in whether they are useful or not. Personally I find them very useful.

Mary

[Banfa]

Where do you put it?

Like this

if (...){
//blah blah
}

or like this

if(...)
{
//blah blah blah
}

Let the debate begin!!!

I prefer the second layout but have worked with both. What you use however is not so important as making sure the coding standard for the project in question specifies a layout and everyone on the project sticking to it.

[Banfa]

Here is another debate what do you like:

intIndex++

Or

intIndex += 1

I prefer the +=

Aric

I don't think I care, but I use the ++ because it is 3 less characters to type.

[acoder]

Here is another debate what do you like:

intIndex++

Or

intIndex += 1

I prefer the +=

Aric

intIndex++ wherever I can use it. CFScript (Coldfusion scripting language) doesn't allow these so I'm forced to use intIndex = intIndex + 1 (so much typing!)

[acoder]

Where do you put it?

Like this

if (...){
//blah blah
}

or like this

if(...)
{
//blah blah blah
}

Let the debate begin!!!

I actually use the first method. I've never had bracket problems because I use indenting too and all brackets line up with the command.

I don't know how I started using this method as opposed to the second method, but it's stuck and I actually find the second method unsightly. If I'm copying code from somewhere or altering code, I'll change it to the first style (if it's not a lot of code). To save even more space, I'll also get rid of brackets altogether if it's a single line of code in if, for, while, etc.

Just personal habits.

[Ganon11]

My style:

if (<condition>) singleStatement;
if (<condition>) {
   state1;
   state2;
   state3;
} else if (<condition>) {
   state1;
   state2;
} else singleStatement;

intIndex++;

I like saving the lines. Also, when scanning code, I can identify where each block of code begins/ends by the indenting involved. Finally,

}
else if (<condition>)
{

looks uglier and 'breaks up' the code more than

} else if (<condition>) {

++ is just great.