Practical and Efficient SAS Programming

Appendix C: Coding Style

Introduction

Indenting

Aligning

Handling Line Lengths

Using Capital Letters (or Not)

Naming

Coding with Style

Introduction

I believe strongly that programmers should use a consistent style when they program. I don’t care what that style is (well, I do a little bit); it just needs to be consistent. If you have a style that makes your code easy to read with plenty of white space, both you and anyone who inherits your code will have a much easier time maintaining it. If you don’t use a consistent style, other programmers will waste time just trying to figure out which statements go together and when one section ends and the another starts.

I recommend that if you don’t have a coding style, you should come up with one that ...