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Style Guidelines

Python Style Guidelines provide a set of rules for writing Python code. These guidelines, such as PEP 8 or Google's Python Style Guide, ensure that your code is readable, maintainable, and consistent.

Existing Guidelines

  • PEP 8 is the official style guide for Python, created by the creators of the Python language. It provides conventions for code layout, naming conventions, programming recommendations, and more. Some key points include using 4 spaces for indentation, lines should be less than 80 characters, etc. PEP 8 is available at this link.
  • Google Python Style Guide is another comprehensive style guide. It aligns closely with PEP 8 but adds some additional rules and clarifications, including Google-specific requirements. For instance, it provides detailed instructions on how to handle imports, naming conventions, and comments in your code. Google's Python Style Guide can be found here.

Remember, the goal of these style guidelines is to create clear, readable, and consistent code that's easy to understand and maintain. While it's important to follow them, it's also essential to know when to make exceptions for the sake of readability and simplicity.

Linting

Linting is the process of running a program that will analyse code for potential errors. In Python, a "linter" can be used to check if code follows a specific style guide and to detect certain types of errors before execution. This helps ensure that code is consistent and avoids certain types of bugs.

Here are some popular Python linting tools:

  • Pylint: Pylint is a highly customizable tool and an industry standard. It checks if a module satisfies a coding standard, and also offers some additional features, like checking line-code's length, whether variable names are well-formed according to your coding standard, or whether declared interfaces are fully implemented. You can find more about Pylint here.
  • Flake8: Flake8 is another Python linting tool. It's easy to use and combines the functionality of other popular linting tools like PyFlakes and pep8. It checks your code base against coding style (PEP8), programming errors (like “library imported but unused” and “Undefined name”) and also can be hooked into your repository as a commit trigger to enforce certain coding standards. More information can be found here.
  • Black: Black is a little different from Pylint and Flake8. It's an uncompromising Python code formatter. By using it, you cede control over minutiae of hand-formatting in exchange for speed, simplicity, and consistency. It auto-formats your code to make it PEP 8 compliant, so you don't have to worry about it. Check it out here.

These tools can be integrated into many text editors and IDEs, and some like Flake8 and Pylint can be incorporated into your continuous integration pipeline, checking your code automatically when you commit changes.