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An undefined variable in the source code of a computer program is a variable that is accessed in the code but has not been declared by that code. [1] In some programming languages, an implicit declaration is provided the first time such a variable is encountered at compile time. In other languages such a usage is considered to be sufficiently ...
They provide an elegant way of handling errors, without resorting to exception handling; when a function that may fail returns a result type, the programmer is forced to consider success or failure paths, before getting access to the expected result; this eliminates the possibility of an erroneous programmer assumption.
These codes are Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, respectively, and some of their guidelines are presented below: From the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (ACM): [2] Contribute to society and human well-being.
The rules a compiler applies to the source creates implicit standards. For example, Python code is much more consistently indented than, say Perl, because whitespace (indentation) is actually significant to the interpreter. Python does not use the brace syntax Perl uses to delimit functions. Changes in indentation serve as the delimiters.
It is much easier for a programmer to read code written by someone else if all code follows the same conventions. For some examples of bad coding conventions, Roedy Green provides a lengthy (tongue-in-cheek) article on how to produce unmaintainable code. [20]
Syntax highlighting and indent style are often used to aid programmers in recognizing elements of source code. This Python code uses color-coded highlighting. In computer science, the syntax of a computer language is the rules that define the combinations of symbols that are considered to be correctly structured statements or expressions in ...
For example, a precondition—an assertion placed at the beginning of a section of code—determines the set of states under which the programmer expects the code to execute. A postcondition—placed at the end—describes the expected state at the end of execution. For example: x > 0 { x++ } x > 1.
For example, Python's PEP 8 is a widely recognized style guide that outlines best practices for writing Python code. In contrast, languages like C or Java may have industry standards that are either formally documented or adhered to by convention.