GitHub - T4R-Technology/javascript: JavaScript Style Guide (original) (raw)


**[⬆ back to top](#table-of-contents)**


## Whitespace

- Use soft tabs set to 2 spaces.

  ```javascript
  // bad
  function() {
  ∙∙∙∙var name;
  }

  // bad
  function() {
  ∙var name;
  }

  // good
  function() {
  ∙∙var name;
  }

Place 1 space before the leading brace.

// bad
function test(){
  console.log('test');
}

// good
function test() {
  console.log('test');
}

// bad
dog.set('attr',{
  age: '1 year',
  breed: 'Bernese Mountain Dog'
});

// good
dog.set('attr', {
  age: '1 year',
  breed: 'Bernese Mountain Dog'
});

Set off operators with spaces.

// bad
var x=y+5;

// good
var x = y + 5;

End files with a single newline character.

// bad
(function(global) {
  // ...stuff...
})(this);

// bad
(function(global) {
  // ...stuff...
})(this);↵
↵

// good
(function(global) {
  // ...stuff...
})(this);↵

Use indentation when making long method chains. Use a leading dot, which emphasizes that the line is a method call, not a new statement.

// bad
$('#items').find('.selected').highlight().end().find('.open').updateCount();

// bad
$('#items').
  find('selected').
    highlight().
    end().
  find('.open').
    updateCount();

// good
$('#items')
  .find('.selected')
    .highlight()
    .end()
  .find('.open')
    .updateCount();

// bad
var leds = stage.selectAll('.led').data(data).enter().append('svg:svg').class('led', true)
    .attr('width',  (radius + margin) * 2).append('svg:g')
    .attr('transform', 'translate(' + (radius + margin) + ',' + (radius + margin) + ')')
    .call(tron.led);

// good
var leds = stage.selectAll('.led')
    .data(data)
  .enter().append('svg:svg')
    .class('led', true)
    .attr('width',  (radius + margin) * 2)
  .append('svg:g')
    .attr('transform', 'translate(' + (radius + margin) + ',' + (radius + margin) + ')')
    .call(tron.led);

Leave a blank line after blocks and before the next statement

// bad
if (foo) {
  return bar;
}
return baz;

// good
if (foo) {
  return bar;
}

return baz;

// bad
var obj = {
  foo: function() {
  },
  bar: function() {
  }
};
return obj;

// good
var obj = {
  foo: function() {
  },

  bar: function() {
  }
};

return obj;

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Commas

Leading commas: Nope.

// bad
var story = [
    once
  , upon
  , aTime
];

// good
var story = [
  once,
  upon,
  aTime
];

// bad
var hero = {
    firstName: 'Bob'
  , lastName: 'Parr'
  , heroName: 'Mr. Incredible'
  , superPower: 'strength'
};

// good
var hero = {
  firstName: 'Bob',
  lastName: 'Parr',
  heroName: 'Mr. Incredible',
  superPower: 'strength'
};

Additional trailing comma: Nope. This can cause problems with IE6/7 and IE9 if it's in quirksmode. Also, in some implementations of ES3 would add length to an array if it had an additional trailing comma. This was clarified in ES5 (source):

Edition 5 clarifies the fact that a trailing comma at the end of an ArrayInitialiser does not add to the length of the array. This is not a semantic change from Edition 3 but some implementations may have previously misinterpreted this.

// bad
var hero = {
  firstName: 'Kevin',
  lastName: 'Flynn',
};

var heroes = [
  'Batman',
  'Superman',
];

// good
var hero = {
  firstName: 'Kevin',
  lastName: 'Flynn'
};

var heroes = [
  'Batman',
  'Superman'
];

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Semicolons

Yup.

// bad
(function() {
  var name = 'Skywalker'
  return name
})()

// good
(function() {
  var name = 'Skywalker';
  return name;
})();

// good (guards against the function becoming an argument when two files with IIFEs are concatenated)
;(function() {
  var name = 'Skywalker';
  return name;
})();

Type Casting & Coercion

Perform type coercion at the beginning of the statement.

Strings:

//  => this.reviewScore = 9;

// bad
var totalScore = this.reviewScore + '';

// good
var totalScore = '' + this.reviewScore;

// bad
var totalScore = '' + this.reviewScore + ' total score';

// good
var totalScore = this.reviewScore + ' total score';

Use parseInt for Numbers and always with a radix for type casting.

var inputValue = '4';

// bad
var val = new Number(inputValue);

// bad
var val = +inputValue;

// bad
var val = inputValue >> 0;

// bad
var val = parseInt(inputValue);

// good
var val = Number(inputValue);

// good
var val = parseInt(inputValue, 10);

If for whatever reason you are doing something wild and parseInt is your bottleneck and need to use Bitshift for performance reasons, leave a comment explaining why and what you're doing.
```
// good
/**
 * parseInt was the reason my code was slow.
 * Bitshifting the String to coerce it to a
 * Number made it a lot faster.
 */
var val = inputValue >> 0;
```
Note: Be careful when using bitshift operations. Numbers are represented as 64-bit values, but Bitshift operations always return a 32-bit integer (source). Bitshift can lead to unexpected behavior for integer values larger than 32 bits. Discussion. Largest signed 32-bit Int is 2,147,483,647:
```
2147483647 >> 0 //=> 2147483647
2147483648 >> 0 //=> -2147483648
2147483649 >> 0 //=> -2147483647
```

Booleans:

var age = 0;

// bad
var hasAge = new Boolean(age);

// good
var hasAge = Boolean(age);

// good
var hasAge = !!age;

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Naming Conventions

Avoid single letter names. Be descriptive with your naming.

// bad
function q() {
  // ...stuff...
}

// good
function query() {
  // ..stuff..
}

Use camelCase when naming objects, functions, and instances.

// bad
var OBJEcttsssss = {};
var this_is_my_object = {};
function c() {}
var u = new user({
  name: 'Bob Parr'
});

// good
var thisIsMyObject = {};
function thisIsMyFunction() {}
var user = new User({
  name: 'Bob Parr'
});

Use PascalCase when naming constructors or classes.

// bad
function user(options) {
  this.name = options.name;
}

var bad = new user({
  name: 'nope'
});

// good
function User(options) {
  this.name = options.name;
}

var good = new User({
  name: 'yup'
});

Use a leading underscore _ when naming private properties.

// bad
this.__firstName__ = 'Panda';
this.firstName_ = 'Panda';

// good
this._firstName = 'Panda';

When saving a reference to this use _this.

// bad
function() {
  var self = this;
  return function() {
    console.log(self);
  };
}

// bad
function() {
  var that = this;
  return function() {
    console.log(that);
  };
}

// good
function() {
  var _this = this;
  return function() {
    console.log(_this);
  };
}

Name your functions. This is helpful for stack traces.

// bad
var log = function(msg) {
  console.log(msg);
};

// good
var log = function log(msg) {
  console.log(msg);
};

Note: IE8 and below exhibit some quirks with named function expressions. See http://kangax.github.io/nfe/ for more info.

If your file exports a single class, your filename should be exactly the name of the class.

// file contents
class CheckBox {
  // ...
}
module.exports = CheckBox;

// in some other file
// bad
var CheckBox = require('./checkBox');

// bad
var CheckBox = require('./check_box');

// good
var CheckBox = require('./CheckBox');

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Accessors

Accessor functions for properties are not required.

If you do make accessor functions use getVal() and setVal('hello').

// bad
dragon.age();

// good
dragon.getAge();

// bad
dragon.age(25);

// good
dragon.setAge(25);

If the property is a boolean, use isVal() or hasVal().

// bad
if (!dragon.age()) {
  return false;
}

// good
if (!dragon.hasAge()) {
  return false;
}

It's okay to create get() and set() functions, but be consistent.

function Jedi(options) {
  options || (options = {});
  var lightsaber = options.lightsaber || 'blue';
  this.set('lightsaber', lightsaber);
}

Jedi.prototype.set = function(key, val) {
  this[key] = val;
};

Jedi.prototype.get = function(key) {
  return this[key];
};

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Constructors

Assign methods to the prototype object, instead of overwriting the prototype with a new object. Overwriting the prototype makes inheritance impossible: by resetting the prototype you'll overwrite the base!

function Jedi() {
  console.log('new jedi');
}

// bad
Jedi.prototype = {
  fight: function fight() {
    console.log('fighting');
  },

  block: function block() {
    console.log('blocking');
  }
};

// good
Jedi.prototype.fight = function fight() {
  console.log('fighting');
};

Jedi.prototype.block = function block() {
  console.log('blocking');
};

Methods can return this to help with method chaining.

// bad
Jedi.prototype.jump = function() {
  this.jumping = true;
  return true;
};

Jedi.prototype.setHeight = function(height) {
  this.height = height;
};

var luke = new Jedi();
luke.jump(); // => true
luke.setHeight(20); // => undefined

// good
Jedi.prototype.jump = function() {
  this.jumping = true;
  return this;
};

Jedi.prototype.setHeight = function(height) {
  this.height = height;
  return this;
};

var luke = new Jedi();

luke.jump()
  .setHeight(20);

It's okay to write a custom toString() method, just make sure it works successfully and causes no side effects.

function Jedi(options) {
  options || (options = {});
  this.name = options.name || 'no name';
}

Jedi.prototype.getName = function getName() {
  return this.name;
};

Jedi.prototype.toString = function toString() {
  return 'Jedi - ' + this.getName();
};

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Events

When attaching data payloads to events (whether DOM events or something more proprietary like Backbone events), pass a hash instead of a raw value. This allows a subsequent contributor to add more data to the event payload without finding and updating every handler for the event. For example, instead of:

// bad
$(this).trigger('listingUpdated', listing.id);

...

$(this).on('listingUpdated', function(e, listingId) {
  // do something with listingId
});

prefer:

// good
$(this).trigger('listingUpdated', { listingId : listing.id });

...

$(this).on('listingUpdated', function(e, data) {
  // do something with data.listingId
});

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Modules

The module should start with a !. This ensures that if a malformed module forgets to include a final semicolon there aren't errors in production when the scripts get concatenated. Explanation
The file should be named with camelCase, live in a folder with the same name, and match the name of the single export.
Add a method called noConflict() that sets the exported module to the previous version and returns this one.

Always declare 'use strict'; at the top of the module.

// fancyInput/fancyInput.js

!function(global) {
  'use strict';

  var previousFancyInput = global.FancyInput;

  function FancyInput(options) {
    this.options = options || {};
  }

  FancyInput.noConflict = function noConflict() {
    global.FancyInput = previousFancyInput;
    return FancyInput;
  };

  global.FancyInput = FancyInput;
}(this);

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jQuery

Prefix jQuery object variables with a $.

// bad
var sidebar = $('.sidebar');

// good
var <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>s</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>d</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>b</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mo>=</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">sidebar = </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.6944em;"></span><span class="mord mathnormal">s</span><span class="mord mathnormal">i</span><span class="mord mathnormal">d</span><span class="mord mathnormal">e</span><span class="mord mathnormal">ba</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">r</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.2778em;"></span><span class="mrel">=</span></span></span></span>('.sidebar');

Cache jQuery lookups.

// bad
function setSidebar() {
  $('.sidebar').hide();

  // ...stuff...

  $('.sidebar').css({
    'background-color': 'pink'
  });
}

// good
function setSidebar() {
  var <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>s</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>d</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>b</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mo>=</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">sidebar = </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.6944em;"></span><span class="mord mathnormal">s</span><span class="mord mathnormal">i</span><span class="mord mathnormal">d</span><span class="mord mathnormal">e</span><span class="mord mathnormal">ba</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">r</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.2778em;"></span><span class="mrel">=</span></span></span></span>('.sidebar');
  $sidebar.hide();

  // ...stuff...

  $sidebar.css({
    'background-color': 'pink'
  });
}

For DOM queries use Cascading $('.sidebar ul') or parent > child $('.sidebar > ul'). jsPerf

Use find with scoped jQuery object queries.

// bad
$('ul', '.sidebar').hide();

// bad
$('.sidebar').find('ul').hide();

// good
$('.sidebar ul').hide();

// good
$('.sidebar > ul').hide();

// good
$sidebar.find('ul').hide();

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ECMAScript 5 Compatibility

Refer to Kangax's ES5 compatibility table.

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Testing

Yup.
```
function() {
  return true;
}
```

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Performance

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Resources

Read This

Annotated ECMAScript 5.1

Tools

Code Style Linters
- JSHint - Airbnb Style .jshintrc
- JSCS - Airbnb Style Preset

Other Styleguides

Other Styles

Naming this in nested functions - Christian Johansen
Conditional Callbacks - Ross Allen
Popular JavaScript Coding Conventions on Github - JeongHoon Byun
Multiple var statements in JavaScript, not superfluous - Ben Alman

Further Reading

Understanding JavaScript Closures - Angus Croll
Basic JavaScript for the impatient programmer - Dr. Axel Rauschmayer
You Might Not Need jQuery - Zack Bloom & Adam Schwartz
ES6 Features - Luke Hoban
Frontend Guidelines - Benjamin De Cock

Books

JavaScript: The Good Parts - Douglas Crockford
JavaScript Patterns - Stoyan Stefanov
Pro JavaScript Design Patterns - Ross Harmes and Dustin Diaz
High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers - Steve Souders
Maintainable JavaScript - Nicholas C. Zakas
JavaScript Web Applications - Alex MacCaw
Pro JavaScript Techniques - John Resig
Smashing Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere - Guillermo Rauch
Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja - John Resig and Bear Bibeault
Human JavaScript - Henrik Joreteg
Superhero.js - Kim Joar Bekkelund, Mads Mobæk, & Olav Bjorkoy
JSBooks - Julien Bouquillon
Third Party JavaScript - Ben Vinegar and Anton Kovalyov

Blogs

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In the Wild

This is a list of organizations that are using this style guide. Send us a pull request or open an issue and we'll add you to the list.

Aan Zee: AanZee/javascript
Airbnb: airbnb/javascript
American Insitutes for Research: AIRAST/javascript
Apartmint: apartmint/javascript
Avalara: avalara/javascript
Compass Learning: compasslearning/javascript-style-guide
DailyMotion: dailymotion/javascript
Digitpaint digitpaint/javascript
Evernote: evernote/javascript-style-guide
ExactTarget: ExactTarget/javascript
Gawker Media: gawkermedia/javascript
GeneralElectric: GeneralElectric/javascript
GoodData: gooddata/gdc-js-style
Grooveshark: grooveshark/javascript
How About We: howaboutwe/javascript
InfoJobs: InfoJobs/JavaScript-Style-Guide
Intent Media: intentmedia/javascript
Jam3: Jam3/Javascript-Code-Conventions
Kinetica Solutions: kinetica/javascript
Mighty Spring: mightyspring/javascript
MinnPost: MinnPost/javascript
ModCloth: modcloth/javascript
Money Advice Service: moneyadviceservice/javascript
Muber: muber/javascript
National Geographic: natgeo/javascript
National Park Service: nationalparkservice/javascript
Nimbl3: nimbl3/javascript
Orion Health: orionhealth/javascript
Peerby: Peerby/javascript
Razorfish: razorfish/javascript-style-guide
reddit: reddit/styleguide/javascript
REI: reidev/js-style-guide
Ripple: ripple/javascript-style-guide
SeekingAlpha: seekingalpha/javascript-style-guide
Shutterfly: shutterfly/javascript
StudentSphere: studentsphere/javascript
Target: target/javascript
TheLadders: TheLadders/javascript
T4R Technology: T4R-Technology/javascript
Userify: userify/javascript
VoxFeed: VoxFeed/javascript-style-guide
Weggo: Weggo/javascript
Zillow: zillow/javascript
ZocDoc: ZocDoc/javascript

Translation

This style guide is also available in other languages:

German: timofurrer/javascript-style-guide
Japanese: mitsuruog/javacript-style-guide
Brazilian Portuguese: armoucar/javascript-style-guide
Chinese: adamlu/javascript-style-guide
Spanish: paolocarrasco/javascript-style-guide
Korean: tipjs/javascript-style-guide
French: nmussy/javascript-style-guide
Russian: uprock/javascript
Bulgarian: borislavvv/javascript
Catalan: fpmweb/javascript-style-guide
Polish: mjurczyk/javascript

The JavaScript Style Guide Guide

Reference

Chat With Us About JavaScript

Find us on gitter.

Contributors

View Contributors

License

(The MIT License)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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};

```