What are Coding Standards

• Coding Standards are a collection of guidelines for the structure and writing of code.
• Coding Standards provide broad guidelines on “how to write” code, such as whether to use quotes, how many spaces to leave between lines and where to place line breaks.

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Why must Coding Standards be followed?

• Every developer uniquely produces code. That’s acceptable while we are developing our code.
• When there are more developers working on the same codebase, things become more complicated.
• Style guides are established so new developers can rapidly become familiar with a code base and write code that is simple and quick for other developers to grasp.

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Some commonly Employed Style Guides

It gets tougher to maintain a consistent coding style as time goes on since the codebase grows larger. As a result, even if you’re the only developer working on a project, following a style guide has a big impact. Out are many style guides there, but we’ll focus on five of the more widely used ones.

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1. Airbnb Style Guide

The JavaScript Style Guide from Airbnb has grown in popularity and is currently perhaps the most widely utilized and applicable style guide for many developers. The JavaScript style guide for Airbnb is pretty understandable, and many of the requirements make sense. All of the guidelines there also assist you in maintaining a consistent code style.

The four key reasons why developers adore Airbnb JavaScript Style are as follows:

• Consistency
• Readability
• Predictability
• Efficiency

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2. JavaScript Standard Style

A style manual with a linter and an automatic code fixer is called JavaScript Standard Style. It’s quite easy to use JavaScript Standard Style. JavaScript code can be typed in your preferred manner and executed using the default node package. Automatic code formatting will take place.

The JavaScript Standard Style should be used for the following three key reasons:

• No configuration: The simplest way to ensure that your project has a consistent style.
• Format code automatically: Your untidy or inconsistent code will be fixed by the style guide with only one simple — fix command.
• Early detection of programming faults and style issues: You can save precious code review time by avoiding back and forth between contributor and reviewer.

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3. Idiomatic JavaScript Style Guide

Idiomatic JavaScript is developed by some of the most experienced JavaScript developers out there. It is one of the oldest and most comprehensive JavaScript coding standards available for use as open source.

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4. Google Style Guide

Since its 2012 publication, the Google JavaScript Style Guide has been used to create many of the company’s open-source JavaScript designs. The Google style guide can be separated into two sections, one relying entirely on conventions and coding standards and the other concentrating on JavaScript style guidelines (aesthetic difficulties of formatting).

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5. jQuery JavaScript Style Guide

The jQuery JavaScript Style Guide has been used for many years by jQuery developers when writing JavaScript. As a result, jQuery developers can incorporate this module and determine whether their code adheres to the jQuery style manual.

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Why have we chosen the Airbnb style guide?

The Airbnb rules list is a great starting point and can help you save a lot of time. Rules can be changed and replaced as you develop your own standards and viewpoints.

It’s especially beneficial for new developers who might otherwise lack knowledge or expertise with the capabilities ESLint provides.

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Prerequisites:

Create a sample NodeJS application for testing the linter. My sample app.js file is mentioned below

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Procedure to setup Airbnb style guide

Step 1: Use the following command to globally install the “eslint” package.

npm install -g eslint

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Step 2a: Start “eslint” with the command below.

eslint — init

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Step 2b: Choose “To check syntax, find problems, and enforce code style” and enter.

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Step 2c: Choose “CommonJS” and enter.

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Step 2d: Choose “None of these” and enter.

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Step 2e: Choose “No” and enter

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Step 2f: Choose “Browser” and enter.

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Step 2g: Choose “Use a popular style guide” and enter.

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Step 2h: Choose “Airbnb”

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Step 2i: Choose “JSON”

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Step 2j: Choose option “Yes”.

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Step 2k: Choose “npm” and Enter

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Step 3: Open VS Code , navigate to “Extensions” and then search and install “ESlint” extension. Enable the extension.

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Step 4: Once the extension is enabled, the above developed “app.js” is filled with linter issues since the file is not as per the linter rules.

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Conclusion

The best practices of coding standards help in generating ethical code that is flexible enough to get used in another solution and efficient sufficient to meet all performance criteria. If we follow the same pattern inside workspace, then the readability of code will also enhance.

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