ClearCode Standards in practice
April 26, 2008
I've just watched Ben Nadel's thought provoking presentation on Code Standards. I've always been a fan of standards, Ben takes this further and talks about how the eye and brain process the code on the screen. As a result I thought I'd try comparing the way I would write code with Ben's.
SQL Statements
The conventions I have used when writing SQL statement are:
- All columns from a table should go on one line in the SELECT statement
- SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY and ORDER BY should all be indented at the same level
- Table names should be inside square brackets (i.e. [Articles])
- Joined tables should be nested to reflect the one to many relationship between tables
- All columns refereneces should be prefixed with the table name
- The value of the cfsqltype should be upper case as it is a constant (left over from my VB days!)
Here is an example:
<cfquery name="qryArticles" datasource="#Application.Datasource#"> SELECT [Articles].article_id, [Articles].article_title, [Articles].article_published, [Categories].category_id, [Category].category_title, [Topics].topic_id, [Topics].topic_title FROM [Articles] INNER JOIN [Categories] on ( [Articles].article_category_id = [Categories].category_id ) INNER JOIN [Topics] on ( [Categories].category_topic_id = [Topics].topic_id ) WHERE 1 = 1 <cfif StructKeyExists(Filter, "article_id")> AND [Articles].article_id = <cfqueryparam value="#Val(Filter.article_id)#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_INTEGER" /> </cfif> <cfif StructKeyExists(Filter, "category_id")> AND [Categories].category_id = <cfqueryparam value="#Val(Filter.category_id)#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_INTEGER" /> </cfif> ORDER BY [Articles].article_published, [Category].category_title </cfquery>
The same statement using Ben's standards (I apologise Ben if I've got this wrong!).
<cfquery name="qryArticles" datasource="#Application.Datasource#"> SELECT a.article_id, a.article_title, a.article_published, c.category_id, c.category_title, t.topic_id, t.topic_title FROM Articles a INNER JOIN Categories c ON ( a.article_category_id = c.category_id ) INNER JOIN Topics t ON ( c.category_topic_id = t.topic_id ) WHERE 1 = 1 <cfif StructKeyExists(Filter, "article_id")> AND a.article_id = <cfqueryparam value="#Val(Filter.article_id)#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" /> </cfif> <cfif StructKeyExists(Filter, "category_id")> AND c.category_id = <cfqueryparam value="#Val(Filter.category_id)#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" /> </cfif> ORDER BY a.article_published, c.category_title, t.topic_title </cfquery>
Functions
My normal style:
<cffunction name="CodeFormat" access="public" hint="I am the pseduo constructor." output="false"> <cfargument name="content" type="string" required="true" hint="I am the string that will be format and tags escaped" /> <cfreturn Replace(Replace(HtmlEditFormat(Arguments.content), Chr(10), "<br />", "all"), Chr(09), " ", "all") /> </cffunction>
Ben's way:
<cffunction name="CodeFormat" access="public" hint="I am the format code." output="false"> <cfargument name="content" type="string" required="true" hint="I am the string that will be format and tags escaped" /> <cfreturn Replace( Replace( HtmlEditFormat(Arguments.content), Chr(10), "<br />", "all" ), Chr(09), " ", "all" ) /> </cffunction>
Interesting isn't it, which do you find easier to read? You can find out more about Ben's ClearCode Standards Project on his blog:
www.bennadel.com/index.cfm?dax=blog:1211.view
- Posted in:
- SQL
- ColdFusion
2 comments
Leave a comment
If you found this post useful, interesting or just plain wrong, let me know - I like feedback :)
I do a mix, Ben's SQL-style and your CFC-style. best of both worlds ;-)
Comment by Sebastiaan – May 19, 2008
I'm not sure that my style is the best of any world but it works for me :) I have adopted Ben's SQL style but I tend to put the commas in front of the column name (It's a great way of avoiding missing out the comma!) and also I find my style of indenting linked tables easy to see how they are relate to each other. Something this:
SELECT
a.article_id
, a.article_title
, a.article_published
, c.category_id
, c.category_title
, t.topic_id
, t.topic_title
FROM [Articles]
INNER JOIN [Categories] on ( [Articles].article_category_id = [Categories].category_id )
INNER JOIN [Topics] on ( [Categories].category_topic_id = [Topics].topic_id ) WHERE
1 = 1
ORDER BY
a.article_published
, c.category_title
, t.topic_title
Comment by John Whish – May 21, 2008