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Allman Style vs Whitesmiths style

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When comparing Allman Style vs Whitesmiths style, the Slant community recommends Allman Style for most people. In the question“What is the best indentation style in C?” Allman Style is ranked 1st while Whitesmiths style is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Allman Style is:

The block of code itself is disconnected from the control statement which allows developers to comment out or remove entirely a control statement without having a large risk of encountering syntax errors because of extra or missing braces.

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Common Questions

What is the best indentation style in C?

Pros

Pro
The block of code is disconnected from the control statement

Pro
Easy to find matching braces

The code is clearly set apart from the statement by lines that are almost completely whitespace and the fact that the opening braces line up in the same column as the closing braces makes it easier to match them.

Pro
Blocks are set apart from control statements

Like the Allman style, with the Witesmiths style the blocks are clearly set apart from the control statements.

Pro
Easy to see how blocks of code belong together.

The fact that the code lines up up with the braces makes this by far and away the easiest style to read. The code flows much more naturally, there is zero doubt about which block the codes belongs to, your eyes are quickly drawn to what belongs where.

Pro
Indenting the braces makes them feel that they are subordinate to the control statement

Indenting the braces makes them feel that they are subordinate to the control statements. Which helps the reader understand which block belongs to which control statement.

Pro
Indenting Braces removes noise from the vertical line

When scanning vertically through large sections of code to review the code execution flow, having the braces indented means less noise to filter out. The execution flow statements stand alone on the vertical line and are thus far more quickly picked out by the eye.

Pro
Makes a clear divider on multi line control statements

Sometimes a control statement can take a lot of arguments and go over many lines. It frees your mind from doing the work to separate arguments and code block.

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Cons

Con
Uses more vertical space than other styles

Since each bracket is its own line, the Allman style takes more vertical space than other indent styles. This is one of the reasons that a lot of book authors do not prefer to use Allman style in their texts.

Con
May be confusing to the eye

The braces confuse the focus of the reader's eye and this causes the reader to look longer at the line right after the opening brace and at the line right before the closing brace.