TRV JavaScript Style Guide() {

A mostly reasonable approach to JavaScript

About
General
Types
Objects
Arrays
Strings
Functions
Properties
Variables
Hoisting
Conditional Expressions & Equality
Blocks
Comments
Whitespace
Commas
Semicolons
Type Casting & Coercion
Naming Conventions
Constructors
Events
Performance
Resources
License

About

A style guide and best practises for JavaScript development in MPK.

General

Use JsHint.

Types

Primitives: When you access a primitive type you work directly on its value.
- string
- number
- boolean
- null
- undefined
```
var foo = 1,
    bar = foo;

bar = 9;

console.log(foo, bar); // => 1, 9
```

Complex: When you access a complex type you work on a reference to its value.

object
array
function

var foo = [1, 2],
    bar = foo;

bar[0] = 9;

console.log(foo[0], bar[0]); // => 9, 9

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Objects

Use the literal syntax for object creation.

// bad
var item = new Object();

// good
var item = {};

Don't use reserved words as keys. It won't work in IE8. More info.

// bad
var superman = {
  default: { clark: 'kent' },
  private: true
};

// good
var superman = {
  defaults: { clark: 'kent' },
  hidden: true
};

Use readable synonyms in place of reserved words.

// bad
var superman = {
  class: 'alien'
};

// bad
var superman = {
  klass: 'alien'
};

// good
var superman = {
  type: 'alien'
};

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Arrays

Use the literal syntax for array creation.

// bad
var items = new Array();

// good
var items = [];

If you don't know array length use Array#push.

var someStack = [];


// bad
someStack[someStack.length] = 'abracadabra';

// good
someStack.push('abracadabra');

When you need to copy an array use Array#slice. jsPerf

var len = items.length,
    itemsCopy = [],
    i;

// bad
for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
  itemsCopy[i] = items[i];
}

// good
itemsCopy = items.slice();

To convert an array-like object to an array, use Array#slice.

function trigger() {
  var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
  ...
}

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Strings

Use single quotes '' for strings.

// good
var name = 'Bob Parr';

// bad
var name = 'Bob Parr';

// good
var fullName = 'Bob ' + this.lastName;

// bad
var fullName = 'Bob ' + this.lastName;

Strings longer than 80 characters should be written across multiple lines using string concatenation.

Note: If overused, long strings with concatenation could impact performance. jsPerf & Discussion.

// bad
var errorMessage = 'This is a super long error that was thrown because of Batman. When you stop to think about how Batman had anything to do with this, you would get nowhere fast.';

// bad
var errorMessage = 'This is a super long error that was thrown because \
of Batman. When you stop to think about how Batman had anything to do \
with this, you would get nowhere \
fast.';

// good
var errorMessage = 'This is a super long error that was thrown because ' +
  'of Batman. When you stop to think about how Batman had anything to do ' +
  'with this, you would get nowhere fast.';

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Functions

Function expressions:

// anonymous function expression
var anonymous = function() {
  return true;
};

// named function expression
var named = function named() {
  return true;
};

// immediately-invoked function expression (IIFE)
(function() {
  console.log('Welcome to the Internet. Please follow me.');
})();

Never declare a function in a non-function block (if, while, etc). Assign the function to a variable instead. Browsers will allow you to do it, but they all interpret it differently, which is bad news bears.

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

// good
var test;
if (currentUser) {
  test = function test() {
    console.log('Yup.');
  };
}

Never name a parameter arguments, this will take precedence over the arguments object that is given to every function scope.

// bad
function nope(name, options, arguments) {
  // ...stuff...
}

// good
function yup(name, options, args) {
  // ...stuff...
}

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Properties

Use dot notation when accessing properties.

var luke = {
  jedi: true,
  age: 28
};

// bad
var isJedi = luke['jedi'];

// good
var isJedi = luke.jedi;

Use subscript notation [] when accessing properties with a variable.

var luke = {
  jedi: true,
  age: 28
};

function getProp(prop) {
  return luke[prop];
}

var isJedi = getProp('jedi');

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Variables

Always use var to declare variables. Not doing so will result in global variables. We want to avoid polluting the global namespace. Captain Planet warned us of that.
```
// bad
superPower = new SuperPower();

// good
var superPower = new SuperPower();
```

Assign variables at the top of their scope. This helps avoid issues with variable declaration and assignment hoisting related issues.

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

  //..other stuff..

  var name = getName();

  if (name === 'test') {
    return false;
  }

  return name;
}

// good
function() {
  var name = getName();

  test();
  console.log('doing stuff..');

  //..other stuff..

  if (name === 'test') {
    return false;
  }

  return name;
}

// bad
function() {
  var name = getName();

  if (!arguments.length) {
    return false;
  }

  return true;
}

// good
function() {
  if (!arguments.length) {
    return false;
  }

  var name = getName();

  return true;
}

Use one var declaration for all variables. This promotes the declaration of all variables at the top of the scope, to avoid hoisting confusion.

// good
var items = getItems(),
    goSportsTeam = true,
    dragonball = 'z';

// bad
var items = getItems();
var goSportsTeam = true;
var dragonball = 'z';

Declare unassigned variables last. This is helpful when later on you might need to assign a variable depending on one of the previous assigned variables.

// bad
var i, len, dragonball,
    items = getItems(),
    goSportsTeam = true;

// good
var items = getItems(),
    goSportsTeam = true,
    dragonball,
    length,
    i;

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Hoisting

Variable declarations get hoisted to the top of their scope, their assignment does not.

// we know this wouldn't work (assuming there
// is no notDefined global variable)
function example() {
  console.log(notDefined); // => throws a ReferenceError
}

// creating a variable declaration after you
// reference the variable will work due to
// variable hoisting. Note: the assignment
// value of `true` is not hoisted.
function example() {
  console.log(declaredButNotAssigned); // => undefined
  var declaredButNotAssigned = true;
}

// The interpreter is hoisting the variable
// declaration to the top of the scope,
// which means our example could be rewritten as:
function example() {
  var declaredButNotAssigned;
  console.log(declaredButNotAssigned); // => undefined
  declaredButNotAssigned = true;
}

Anonymous function expressions hoist their variable name, but not the function assignment.

function example() {
  console.log(anonymous); // => undefined

  anonymous(); // => TypeError anonymous is not a function

  var anonymous = function() {
    console.log('anonymous function expression');
  };
}

Named function expressions hoist the variable name, not the function name or the function body.

function example() {
  console.log(named); // => undefined

  named(); // => TypeError named is not a function

  superPower(); // => ReferenceError superPower is not defined

  var named = function superPower() {
    console.log('Flying');
  };
}

// the same is true when the function name
// is the same as the variable name.
function example() {
  console.log(named); // => undefined

  named(); // => TypeError named is not a function

  var named = function named() {
    console.log('named');
  }
}

Function declarations hoist their name and the function body.

function example() {
  superPower(); // => Flying

  function superPower() {
    console.log('Flying');
  }
}

For more information refer to JavaScript Scoping & Hoisting by Ben Cherry.

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Conditional Expressions & Equality

Use === and !== over == and !=.
Conditional expressions are evaluated using coercion with the ToBoolean method and always follow these simple rules:
- Objects evaluate to true
- Undefined evaluates to false
- Null evaluates to false
- Booleans evaluate to the value of the boolean
- Numbers evaluate to false if +0, -0, or NaN, otherwise true
- Strings evaluate to false if an empty string '', otherwise true
```
if ([0]) {
  // true
  // An array is an object, objects evaluate to true
}
```

Use shortcuts.

// bad
if (name !== '') {
  // ...stuff...
}

// good
if (name) {
  // ...stuff...
}

// bad
if (collection.length > 0) {
  // ...stuff...
}

// good
if (collection.length) {
  // ...stuff...
}

For more information see Truth Equality and JavaScript by Angus Croll.

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Blocks

Use braces with line breaks.

// bad
if (test)
  return false;

// bad
if (test) return false;

// good
if (test) {
  return false;
}

// bad
function() { return false; }

// good
function() {
  return false;
}

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Whitespace

Use the code formatting in Visual Studio (ctrl + E + D)

Use tabs.

// good
function() {
∙∙∙∙var name;
}

// bad
function() {
∙∙var name;
}

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();

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Commas

Leading commas: Nope.

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

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

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.

```javascript
// bad
var hero = {
      firstName: 'Kevin',
      lastName: 'Flynn',
    },
    heroes = [
      'Batman',
      'Superman',
    ];

// good
var hero = {
      firstName: 'Kevin',
      lastName: 'Flynn'
    },
    heroes = [
      'Batman',
      'Superman'
    ];
```

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Semicolons

Yup.

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

// good
(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 = {},
    this_is_my_object = {},
    u = new user({
      name: 'Bob Parr'
    });
function c() {}

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

Use PascalCase when naming constructors.

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


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

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.

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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);

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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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Performance

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Resources

Read This

Annotated ECMAScript 5.1

Tools

Code Style Linters
- JSHint for VS2013 - MPK Style .xml
- JSHint - MPK Style .jshintrc

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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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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Theodeus/javascript

TRV JavaScript Style Guide() {

Table of Contents

About

General

Types

Objects

Arrays

Strings

Functions

Properties

Variables

Hoisting

Conditional Expressions & Equality

Blocks

Whitespace

Commas

Semicolons

Type Casting & Coercion

Naming Conventions

Constructors

Events

Performance

Resources

License

};