K&R vs Allman: Code Formatting Styles

Code formatting helps make programs more readable and easier to maintain. Two common styles are K&R (Kernighan & Ritchie) and Allman.

In K&R style, the opening curly brace { appears on the same line as the statement (e.g., if or else). This keeps the code compact, using fewer lines.

K&R

Allman style places the opening brace on a new line. Though it takes more vertical space, it makes it easier to see where each code block starts and ends, improving readability for some.

Allman

The choice between K&R and Allman often depends on personal or team preferences. I learned using the K&R method and it seems much more common. But I found when trying to learn nested code blocks like the if-else-if-else statements in the C program shown above, that the Allman style helped me better see what was happening - ie - when I'm LEARNING a program, trying to understand the algorithm, etc. - I'll often write out the code in the Allman format - I think it really does help, especially for beginners. You can always default back to K&R once you've grasped what's going on.

Ben Santora - October 2024

The above is the detailed content of K&R vs Allman: Code Formatting Styles. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!