Something you’ll realize when you start coding is that there are many ways that you can code the same thing.

For example, when it comes to indentation, instead of using spaces, you can use tabs—or vice versa, instead of tabs, you can use spaces. When you write your for loop, your while loop, or your if statements, you can place your braces in different ways. The compiler doesn’t really care—it’s still going to run your code the same way.

There are also different ways that you can name your variables. The compiler doesn’t care how you name them because it’s all up to you.

And lastly, there are so many ways that you can comment your code. Like I keep saying, the compiler doesn’t really care about what kinds of comments you put in your code.

These kinds of things are really up to you. The compiler doesn’t care, and your program is going to run the same way. But it’s still important to care about these minor things.

When you’re starting to learn how to code, you may not worry about these things. But when you start working with a team or building larger and larger projects, it becomes important to make sure that you’re consistent in how you format your code. This is all so that you can have better readability and make it easier for yourself and others to understand your code.

This kind of thing is called, in just one phrase—coding conventions.

So in this video, I’m going to be talking about what coding conventions are, why they’re important, and I’m going to share some coding convention tips that I learned in university. These are tips that I’ve taken with me into my career and use every day at work.

I’m going to be sharing those tips and showing how I apply them to an example. I’ll go through an example and apply these coding convention ideas and principles to it.

Then, at the end of the video, I’m going to share some final comments about coding conventions and how I’ve seen them play out in my career.

Thank you for watching, and happy coding! 💻
-Henrik