2.6: The Great Bracket Debate
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The Great Bracket Debate
It really isn't that big a deal - but it continues to be a point of disagreement across the software developers' world: Where do the curly brackets belong when I write my code. Once again, for you as a software developer in the world, someone else will probably make that decision for the project you are working one.
But, let us take a few moments to examine what the options are.
The following code is a common example of how people write the code. Notice that the first { is on the line AFTER the function definition. On the If/else statements the opening bracket is at the end of the line. Both of these are valid ways to code the brackets.
void someFunction() { if (condition()) { cout << "condition was true" << endl; } else { cout << "condition was false" << endl; } }
Another frequent formatting is that brackets are always on a line by themselves. Some say this make code easy to read and debug as you can see the matching brackets quite easily.
void someFunction() { if (condition()) { cout << "condition was true" << endl; } else { cout << "condition was false" << endl; } }
The code below shows how some programmers seem to go make it difficult to read their code....this is a valid way to code, but does make it a bit it more difficult to read.
void someFunction() { if (condition()) { cout << "condition was true" << endl; } else { cout << "condition was false" << endl; } }
For this class, I will not tell you which method to use, but I suggest you NOT make it difficult for me or my grader to grade your code...do so may cost you points!!