PHP Coding
Standard
Every company follows a different coding standard
based on their best practices. Coding standard is required because there may be
many developers working on different modules so if they will start inventing
their own standards then source will become very un-manageable and it will
become difficult to maintain that source code in future.
Here are several reasons why to use coding
specifications −
·
Your peer programmers have to
understand the code you produce. A coding standard acts as the blueprint for
all the team to decipher the code.
·
Simplicity and clarity achieved by
consistent coding saves you from common mistakes.
·
If you revise your code after some time
then it becomes easy to understand that code.
·
Its industry standard to follow a
particular standard to being more quality in software.
There are few guidelines which can be followed
while coding in PHP.
·
Indenting
and Line Length − Use an indent of 4 spaces
and don't use any tab because different computers use different setting for
tab. It is recommended to keep lines at approximately 75-85 characters long for
better code readability.
·
Control
Structures − These
include if, for, while, switch, etc. Control statements should have one space
between the control keyword and opening parenthesis, to distinguish them from
function calls. You are strongly encouraged to always use curly braces even in
situations where they are technically optional.
Examples
if ((condition1) || (condition2)) {
action1;
}elseif ((condition3) && (condition4)) {
action2;
}else {
default action;
}
You can write switch statements as follows −
switch (condition) {
case 1:
action1;
break;
case 2:
action2;
break;
default:
defaultaction;
break;
}
·
Function
Calls − Functions should be
called with no spaces between the function name, the opening parenthesis, and
the first parameter; spaces between commas and each parameter, and no space
between the last parameter, the closing parenthesis, and the semicolon. Here's
an example −
$var = foo($bar, $baz, $quux);
·
Function
Definitions − Function declarations
follow the "BSD/Allman style" −
function fooFunction($arg1, $arg2 = '') {
if (condition) {
statement;
}
return $val;
}
·
Comments − C style comments (/* */) and standard
C++ comments (//) are both fine. Use of Perl/shell style comments (#) is
discouraged.
·
PHP
Code Tags − Always use <?php ?> to delimit PHP code,
not the <? ?> shorthand. This is required for PHP compliance and is also the
most portable way to include PHP code on differing operating systems and
setups.
·
Variable
Names −
·
Make
Functions Reentrant −
Functions should not keep static variables that prevent a function from being reentrant.
·
Alignment
of Declaration Blocks − Block of declarations
should be aligned.
·
One
Statement Per Line −
There should be only one statement per line unless the statements are very
closely related.
·
Short
Methods or Functions − Methods should limit
themselves to a single page of code.
There could be many more points which should be
considered while writing your PHP program. Over all intention should be to be
consistent throughout of the code programming and it will be possible only when
you will follow any coding standard. You can device your own standard if you
like something different.