JavaScript: Best Practices for Code Formatting

Course details

JavaScript offers developers tremendous power, but also a wide variety of code style choices. Its evolution over decades and shifts in audience and approach have left communities fragmented and impeded code sharing. In this course, longtime coder and teacher Sasha Vodnik provides a core set of practices for creating code that can be read by more people than its creators. Learn about formatting details like commenting, punctuation, and spacing to maximize your code's ability to travel and thrive.

Learning objectives
Using modern deployment tools
Working with ESLint
Creating easy-to-read comments
Using commas consistently
Standardizing line length in your code
Using a consistent format for blocks
Choosing and implementing a standard indent

Concepts

Introduction

Modern standards for your JavaScript
What you should know
Set up your environment

Why Best Practices

Style guides
Use modern deployment tools
ESLint
Foundational practice - Use strict mode

Creating Comments

Use single-line syntax for single lines
Multi-line syntax with leading asterisks
Include leading spaces in comments
Challenge - Create JavaScript comments
Solution - Create JavaScript comments

Using Punctuation

End statements with a semicolon
Don't rely on auto semicolon insertion
Standardize line length
Use commas consistently
Include a comma in a list of values
Challenge - Optimize punctuation
Solution - Optimize punctuation

Using Spacing

Indent consistently
Space before and after operators
Use a consistent format for blocks
Include a space after keywords and arrows
Use consistent spacing before function signature parentheses
Break up and indent long-method chains
Space consistently within enclosing characters
Space after commas, but not before
Limit blank space to one line
Challenge - Optimize spacing
Solution - Optimize spacing

Conclusion

Next steps