[TIPS] Refactoring - Clean Code - Tip 5 - Consistent Coding Style

Refactoring Tip 5: Consistent Coding Style

Junior: Coding style might be inconsistent.
Senior: Adheres to PEP 8 and uses tools like black and flake8 to ensure consistent style.

Consistent coding style is essential for readability and maintainability of the code. Here's an example to illustrate the difference between how a junior and a senior developer might approach this principle.

Example 1: Inconsistent Naming Conventions and Formatting

Junior Developer's Approach

A junior developer might have inconsistent naming conventions and formatting in their code:

import requests def fetchData(URL): response = requests.get(URL) if response.status_code == 200: return response.json() else: return None

def processData(data): processed_data = [] for item in data: if item['value'] > 10: processed_data.append(item) return processed_data

data = fetchData('https://api.example.com/data') if data: processedData = processData(data) print(processedData)

Senior Developer's Approach

A senior developer would follow PEP 8 guidelines and use tools like black and flake8 to ensure consistent style:

import requests

def fetch_data(url): response = requests.get(url) if response.status_code == 200: return response.json() return None

def process_data(data): processed_data = [ item for item in data if item['value'] > 10 ] return processed_data

data = fetch_data('https://api.example.com/data') if data: processed_data = process_data(data) print(processed_data)

Example 2: Inconsistent Indentation and Spacing

Junior Developer's Approach

A junior developer might have inconsistent indentation and spacing in their code:

def calculate_total(items): total=0 for item in items: total+=item['price'] return total

items = [{'price': 10}, {'price': 20}, {'price': 30}] total = calculate_total(items) print ( total )

Senior Developer's Approach

A senior developer would ensure consistent indentation and spacing, following PEP 8:

def calculate_total(items): total = 0 for item in items: total += item['price'] return total

items = [{'price': 10}, {'price': 20}, {'price': 30}] total = calculate_total(items) print(total)

Example 3: Using Tools for Consistency

Junior Developer's Approach

A junior developer might not use tools to enforce coding style, leading to inconsistencies:

import requests

def get_data(url): response = requests.get(url); if response.status_code == 200: return response.json(); else: return Non

Senior Developer's Approach

A senior developer would use tools like black and flake8 to format the code consistently:

# Run black to format the code black script.py

# Run flake8 to check for style violations flake8 script.py

Before running black and flake8:

import requests

def get_data(url): response = requests.get(url) if response.status_code == 200: return response.json() else: return None

After running black:

import requests

def get_data(url): response = requests.get(url) if response.status_code == 200: return response.json() return None

other great tools are https://pre-commit.com/ and https://github.com/4Catalyzer/fourmat.

Key Improvements:

Consistent Naming Conventions: Follow PEP 8 guidelines for naming variables and functions.
Consistent Indentation and Spacing: Ensure code is uniformly indented and spaced.
Use of Formatting Tools: Utilize tools like black for automatic formatting and flake8 for style checks.

Consistent coding style improves code readability and maintainability. Using tools like black and flake8 helps enforce these standards, ensuring that the codebase remains clean and consistent.