Making Friends: Clean Code
A brief guide on loving yourself and
others through better programming
Brendan Bakos
Outline
• Writing readable programs
• Improving comments
• Making friends
Writing Readable Programs
Key Concept
• Minimize the time it would take someone else
to understand
– Write tidy, consistent code
– Choose specific names that describe the value or
purpose of the variable/dataset
Key Concept
• Minimize the time it would take someone else
to understand
– Write tidy, consistent code
– Choose specific names that describe the value or
purpose of the variable/dataset
Key Concept
• Minimize the time it would take someone else
to understand
– Write tidy, consistent code
– Choose specific names that describe the value or
purpose of the variable/dataset
Case Study
Case Study
Case Study
1. Make a statement
Case Study
1. Make a statement
2. Tab
Case Study
1. Make a statement
2. Tab
3. Tab tab tab
Case Study
4. Descriptive variable names
Case Study
4. Descriptive variable names
BE CONSISTENT
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
– Use white space
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
– Use white space
– Indents
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
– Use white space
– Indents
– Match do/end
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
– Use white space
– Indents
– Match do/end
– One statement per line
General Guidelines
• Programs should look neat
– Use white space
– Indents
– Match do/end
– One statement per line
– Consistency
/* Program Comments */
Key Concept
• Write comments that help the reader
understand the code more easily
– Why
– What
– How
Comments
Useless comments
Comments that make friends
Headers
Tying it all together
Summary
• Make friends by being consistent, using white
space, and using indents
• Make friends with insightful comments
/* Thank you */
Boswell D, Foucher T. The Art of Readable Code. "O'Reilly Media, Inc."; 2011.
Lafler KP. Best Practicing Programming Techniques for SAS Users. 2017.
https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings17/0175-2017.pdf
Winn TJ. Guidelines for Coding of SAS Programs. 2004.
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi29/258-29.pdf
Martin C, Martin L. Clean-up, Comments and Code – Making it Maintainable. 2004.
https://stats.idre.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ap2004.pdf
