code indentation

so im working on a super mini text based game and i posed becuase i had an issue i was told i need to properly indent my code. iv been looking around and i cant find anything on how to indent your code. does anyone know somewhere i can learn how to do it properly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indent_style
There are several different styles- which you choose is not as important as using it consistently.

Any good IDE will indent correctly for you.

yay i can indent

thanks guys

I kind of get annoyed by certain programmers with large tab indentation.
I like keeping it at a Tab: 2 setting, for 2 spaces as a tab. But other programmers like excessive spaces and indentation.

I personally find 4 spaces a bit easier to read. I tend to use 2 to indent code items that are the same "line" of code.

But usually as long as it's consistent and each line is not longer than 80 or so chars it's should be readable.

I am with shoutatchickens on this. 2 is too short, 4 is good, 8 is too much.
But this is all opinions; there is no correct answer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by execute

I kind of get annoyed by certain programmers with large tab indentation.
I like keeping it at a Tab: 2 setting, for 2 spaces as a tab. But other programmers like excessive spaces and indentation.

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Smaller indentation levels encourage deeper nesting, since more code can fit on a line without wrapping. In a way, larger indentation encourages code modularity by making it obvious when the nesting gets too deep. Small indents also make it harder to scan with your eye and match up opening and closing braces.

For ten years I worked at a shop that used 3 spaces for each indent level. Now I'm in a shop which uses tabs, but sets the tab stops to 4 cells in the editor. Open the code in an editor with tabs set to 8 spaces, and it flows off the page.

A good practice is also to start coding with the last line of code written first and work you way up. That way you will know what the result of the operation will be right away and you don't need to write lengthy blocks of code to simply get the result of a operation.

Really? That seems counter-intuitive, seeing as you will spend far more time thinking backwards and writing it out and getting it more wrong than right.
No, a better approach, I think, is to write it the other way and then take a peek at it once it is finished and clean it up a little and so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elysia

Really? That seems counter-intuitive, seeing as you will spend far more time thinking backwards and writing it out and getting it more wrong than right.
No, a better approach, I think, is to write it the other way and then take a peek at it once it is finished and clean it up a little and so.

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Sometimes with jokes on the internet you can never be quite sure if they are actually jokes or not. ;) Actually I think one should go for negative indention, -8 should be standard.(this was a joke)

Well, I'm not being funny, but even as a statement, it isn't so absurd to think about the output of an operation before you start writing it. After all, programming without the slightest idea of what you want is misdirected, if possible at all. In general, your thought process during the design phase of a program is output->input->process; though process usually takes the longest to think about. The rather straight forward input->process->output only occurs during execution.

As for writing a return statement before the rest of the function or whatev, I don't think it makes a significant difference either way, as long as program flow is ok. By the time you actually code, you've already specified the functions you need. Besides, it's a statement that shouldn't need debugging. How often does that really occur? :D