notes and rants

You forgot the standard:

if (var < max) {
DoSomthing();
}

with the last curly brace matching the column of the conditional.

agreed. I see that as often as the first - but I don't care about those today as much as the last two.

Whatever the convention, it must have indenting to be readable and more important than the bracketing rules, it must be done consistently.

Looks like emacs-style brace formatting. (Blech)

I prefer this (compact *and* readable):

if (var < max) {
DoSomething();
}

I am firmly in the

if (var < max)

{
DoSomething();
}

camp.

Sure you can also do:
if (var < max) {DoSomething();}

or

if (var < max)
DoSomething();

but I prefer:
if (var < max)
{
DoSomething();
}

Always indent, if you don't indent you can't follow the structure, so I don't like Anon's example (which, barring spelling, is the same as Jesse's) - but I supect this is a problem of the HTML rendering.

As long as you indent, go with whatever feels best at the time, and try to be consistent in a single file, but otherwise don't worry about it.

Our team's coding standard is the last one you mentioned (braces and code both indented one tab from the previous indentation). It took a little bit to get used to but I find it at least as readable as the style without the braces indented. Unfortunately, VS 2003 doesn't support it and it's been irritating enough that I'm looking around for other editors that do.

There is a huge treatment of brace positioning in McConnell's Code Complete, with pros and cons for all common styles. I think the conclusion was that this style

if (var < max) {
__DoSomething();
}

had the most advantages. At least I switched to that style after reading Code Complete...

I prefer opening and closing brace on their own line, non-indented relative the if. (Like your second example.)

IF one writes a no-braces if or similar statement, I absolutely think that the "then" part should be placed on the same line.

So (trivial example):
if (true) continue;
OR
if (true)
{
___continue;
}
NOT
if (true)
___continue;

The reasoning behind this is that you may think that there is an opening brace on the if-line, while the combination of the missing indention and the statement on the end of the if-line should make it clear enough that it is a one-liner.

I like:

if (var < max) {
__DoSomething();
}

One consideration that I never see addressed: {} usage in contexts beyond conditionals. Try inventing a style that you can use consistently and clearly with conditionals *and* with initializers, especially nested initializers:

struct s
...

s const x[] = // nested initializer -- how to write {}?

and with statement blocks not subordinate to another statement or declaration:

statement1; {
statement2; // misleading if read quickly
}
statement3;

and in class/struct definitions :

struct s {
int i; // misleading if read quickly
};

and in constructors with a long member-initializer list, if you want to list the initializers on separate lines:

c() : m1(...), m2(...), m3(...), m4(...) {

// alternative:

c() :
m1(...),
m2(...),
m3(...),
m4(...)
// where to put brace?

The sad reality: the C++ grammar does not easily allow a consistent and readable style for all contexts allowing {}. Even if you are consistent with {} for conditional statements, are you just as consistent with {} usage in general? If not, why focus on conditionals {} usage in particular?

I don't know what the right answer is, or that there is a right answer. I do know that almost every time I see this discussion, it ignores the more difficult problem of {} layout in the large, in favor of {} layout in the small (conditionals only).

I had some indenting, but the blog editor took it all away :^( Sorry, I didn't mean for all of my examples to be squashed left.

If var < max Then
DoSomething()
End If

Clearly more readable.
Sadly the genuises who came up with the C# compiler don't allow it.
VB ain't so bad afterall.

always {

}

I hate curlies on their own line

if () {

} else {

}

maybe it's my vb background....

I prefer

|if (var < max) {
| DoSomething();
|}

How can you make emacs's auto-indent do this,

if (var < max)

{
DoSomething();
}


instead of this,


if (var < max)

{
DoSomething();
}

the last is supposed to look like the third example of bracing on this page at the top.