How to improve code readability and formatting?

For humans, programming languages are abstractions. Whether you develop code in C++, Java, Python, or assembly is irrelevant. They're all intended for people. We wouldn't need programming languages if people could comprehend and write strings of "0" and "1" as quickly as a machine.

But, we are unable to. Thus, using human logic and intuition, we came up with a technique to harness all that computing power.

Making the code as readable as we can should be our goal as programmers. Because as a software engineer we frequently spend the majority of our time writing code and debug it. But have you ever stopped to consider the importance of code readability and formatting? These elements can significantly impact how simple it is for other developers to understand and work with your code.

These are some tips/guidelines for enhancing the formatting and readability of code:

Avoid abbreviations:

It is good practice to choose names that are easy to read and understand without ambiguity. This means that the name must be selected in light of other considerations and that sometimes abbreviations are good and in other cases bad.

Extract functions:

Following the practice of extracting functions is a good idea. Because it gets highly cluttered when we try to write code for several operations in one method. Nevertheless, if we break down each capability into separate or independent functions, it becomes easier to read and manage.

You can see the below example.

public void RegisterUser(User user) 
{ 
    if(user == null)
    {
        throw new Exception("Invalid User");
    }
    if(user.Name == null)
    {
        throw new Exception("Invalid User Name");
    }
    if(user.Password == null || user.Password.Length < 5)
    {
        throw new Exception("Invalid password");
    }
    if(userRepository.Exists(user))
    {
        throw new Exception("User name already exists");
    }

    userRepository.Add(user);
    emailSender.SendEmail(
        Subject: "Account succesfully created",
        Receiver: user.Email,
        Subject: @"An account for user {user.name} has been created on our platform."
        );
}

Not hard to read, but not pleasant. Now compare it to this:

public void RegisterUser(User user) 
{ 
    ValidateUser(user);

    userRepository.Add(user);
    
    NotifyAccountCreated(user);
}

I think every programmer in the world can tell what the code should do. It’s easy to follow.

Selecting Appropriate Names:

Every piece of code we create should be readable. Even the most inexperienced reader should be able to read a passage and generally comprehend what is intended to be accomplished. The reader should be able to comprehend what is happening at a high level even if he or she does not understand the language's exact grammar.

Design patterns are useful when they solve problems:

I was eager to impress more experienced programmers as a newbie coder. Implementing numerous design patterns was supposed to demonstrate my value, however it just served to highlight my lack of knowledge.

My code worked fine, but what I was doing in 300 lines of code was something that could have been done in 50. Now, I’m not saying design patterns are bad. They solve problems. But there is a time and a place where they must be applied. For small tools and tasks, most of the time, they’re just over-engineering.

I found that focusing on decreasing the code cyclomatic complexity will help with code maintenance much more than applying twisted designs when it comes to expressing your intentions as clearly as possible.

Your code's comments:

While it's vital to develop self-explanatory code, there may be occasions when you need to include comments to clarify complex logic or to provide justification for specific decisions.

Thus in conclusion, we don't have a lot of time to capture the reader's interest, so we should give everything that might tilt the scales our way significant consideration. The tips presented here, although trivial and simple, to be truly effective require a lot of thought.