Basic Python coding standards and guidelines :
When writing Python code always remember The Zen of Python also knows as PEP20
Some examples for PEP20 can be found here
PEP8 is the de-facto code style guide for Python. A high quality, easy-to-read version of PEP 8 is also available at pep8.org.
Reduce the need for documentation but what happens when you have written some complex code/logic ? Write some documentation for it. Comment your code.
When to document or comment your code ?
- When there are multiple people working on same code base and you expect to forget the logic in some days (always happens).
- When there are Business rules, while they may be readable, may not alone show why they are there.
- Where people want to know why you did X instead of Y - you can capture your answer in the code for everyone else who looks at it in now or in the future
Always remember Explaining yourself is good, not needing to do so is better
If you have to write comments and docstrings for Python then please follow these guidelines
Documentation Style Guide for Python :
We will be using the Google Style for writing docstring which can be found here
For Pycharm user you can enable the default docstring by going to
Preferences (settings) -> Tools -> Python Integrated Tools -> Docstrings -> Choose Docstring format
You can also check Analyze Python code in docstrings this will help to identify python code inside the docstring if any
Some examples and explanation can be found at Real Python and Stack Overflow. Basic guidelines of docstrings in the world of Python can be found here.
For VSCode, please install this plugin and choose Google as format in the plugin settings.
Recommended reading :
How to write beautiful Python code ?
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