Importance of Coding Standard and Code Quality in Software Development

Standardization can have a positive effect on every business. For instance, in it’s Software Industry too, there are certain standards for coding that are required to ensure the success of Software development. For the majority of companies it is essential to ensure the smooth operation of software programs is vital to their development.

The creation of high quality software and code isn’t so simple as pie. It requires constant efforts from the team responsible for software development to reach the goals of quality code and adhere to best programming team practices to effectively collaborate. This is a crucial aspect to ensure the success of the software coding standards project. The developers are frequently accused of in violation of requirements for quality in order to finish their work within a short amount of time.

Coding Standards

They are a set of steps that are developed for a particular programming language that specifies an underlying programming style, techniques, and different methods. They can be applied to different aspects of the program written in the language. They are considered to be essential characteristics in the development of software.

Coding standards ensure that all developers who are working on the project follow specific guidelines. The code is easily understood, and the correct consistency is ensured.

Consistency can have a positive effect on the overall quality of the program. One must ensure it is maintained while programming. It is also ensure that the coding rules are consistently followed across the different layers of the program, and they don’t contradict one with respect to. The final program code must appear as though it was written by one developer and in one session.

Let’s review the list of code standards that are applicable to WordPress as well as WordPress VIP.

WordPress codes and standards

As a global, massive community, WordPress has its specific codes, so there’s a uniformity in collaboration across the different areas associated with the WordPress open community and project including core code, through themes to plugins and the like.

Conforming to the standards means that anyone can easily comprehend an entire section of code and alter it in the event that it is needed, without any consideration of the date it was written or by who wrote it.

WordPress Coding standards are able to be separated into specific standards for a particular language:

1. CSS Coding Standards
2. HTML Coding Standards
3. JavaScript Coding Standards
4. PHP Coding Standards for Coding

Let’s look into PHP coding standards in more detail.

PHP codes standards                                                            

What are the coding practices for making PHP-based code to use with WordPress? Let’s get into it:

1. Two and Single Quotes In the event that you’re analysing anything within the string, you can use single quotes. Text that’s entered into attributes must be processed through the esc_attr() to ensure that double or single quotes don’t void the value of the attribute and render the HTML and trigger an security problem.
2. Indentation The indentation you use should be consistent with the structure of your document. Make sure to use real tabs, not spaces as this will allow you to be more flexible between clients. The general rule would be that tabs are placed at the start of the line to create indentation. Spaces can be used in the middle of the line for alignment.
3. Brace Style Braces must always be utilized, even when they are not needed. If you’re working on a lengthy block of code think about whether it could be split into two or more smaller blocks methods, functions, or other elements to simplify the code and make testing easier and enhance the readability.
4. Use else only if, not otherwise in the event of: Else if is not compatible with the colon syntax used for else if blocks. This is why you should use else when using conditionals.
5. Declaring arrays: Using long array syntax ( array( 1 2 3, 3 ) ) to declare arrays is usually more easily understood than the short syntax for arrays ( [ 1 2, 3] ) especially for people who have difficulty seeing.
6. Closures (Anonymous Functions): Where appropriate closures can be utilized in lieu of creating new functions to be passed to callbacks.
7. Multiline Functions When you split functions over several lines, the parameters should be on its own line. Single line inline comments may make up the entire line.
8. Regular Expressions Perl Regular expressions compatible with HTML0 (PCRE and preg_ functions) are to be used over those of their POSIX counterparts. Never use the /e switch, use preg_replace_callback instead.
9. Opening and closing PHP Tags In the case of embedding multiline PHP fragments inside an HTML block in HTML, it is necessary that the PHP closing and open tags should be in a single line in their own.
10. No PHP Shorthand Tags Don’t use any PHP tags that are shorthand. Always make use of the all PHP tags.
11. Eliminate Trailing Spaces Whitespace trailing at the conclusion of each page of code. Eliminating the final PHP tag that is at the top of the file is recommended. If you are using the tag, ensure that you have removed the whitespace trailing.
12. Space Use: Always put spaces between commas, as well as at both ends of the logical string, comparison as well as assignment operators. Spaces should be placed across both the closing and opening parentheses of if in the case of each to, and switches.
13. The formatting of SQL statement: If you are formatting SQL statements, you can break it up into multiple lines and then indent it if it is too complex to justify it. The majority of statements can be formatted as a single line however. Always make sure to capitalize the SQL components of the statement such as the words UPDATE and WHERE.
14. Data Queries Don’t touch databases directly. If you have a function that will retrieve the data you require make use of it. Database abstraction (using functions instead of queries) allows your code to be up-to-date and, in instances where the results are stored in memory, the process could be a lot faster.
15. Naming conventions: Use lowercase letters in the name of a variable, an action/filter as well as function names (never camelCase). Separate words via underscores. Don’t overly abbreviate names of variables. Let the code be clear and self-documenting.
16. Only one object structure (class/interface/trait) should be declared per file: For instance, if we have a file called class-example-class.php it can only contain one class in that file. The second class should be in its own file called class-example-class-extended.php.
17. Self-Explanatory Flag Values for Function Arguments String values should be simply true or true when you call functions. The code can be improved by using descriptive strings instead of Booleans.
18. Interpolation to Name Dynamic Hooks Dynamic hooks must be named using interpolation , rather than concatenation, for reasons of readability and discovery.
19. Ternary Operator Ternary operators are acceptable however you should always check if the assertion is trueand not incorrect. Otherwise, it can become confused. Short ternary operators should not be employed.
20. Yoda conditions: When doing logical comparisons that involve variables, always place variables on both sides, and include literals, constants or functions on the left. In the event that neither of them is variables the order does not matter.
21. Clever Code The general rule is that reading comprehension can be more crucial than intelligence or speed, which is the case with copywriting and content.

Error Control Operator PHP has one error control operator, the at sign. (@). When added by an expression using PHP the errors that could be produced by that expression are ignored. Although this feature is present in Core but it is typically employed in a lazy manner instead of performing the proper error-checking. This is why its use is discouraged.