February 5, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Which is your coding style, and why?
select
Field1,
Field2,
Field3
from sometable
or
select
Field1
, Field2
, Field3
from sometable
Similarly:
select stuff
from sometable
where
Field1 = 1
and Field2 = 2
and Field3 = 3
or
select stuff
from sometable
where
Field1 = 1 and
Field2 = 2 and
Field3 = 3
I was thinking of making this a poll, but not sure if you can add comments to polls.
If this has already been discussed, please pardon me..couldn't find it.
Kurt
February 5, 2010 at 3:59 pm
In straight SELECT statements, I tend to use
SELECT Field1, Field2, Field3
FROM Table1
and I continue the fields until I run out of horizontal space or I consider them no longer readable.
If the fields go to a second line, I put the comma at the end of the first line. I do this partly for readability and partly because I find the comma alone at the beginning of a line distracting.
As for the second pairing, I tend to make it
WHERE Field1 = 1
AND Field2 = 2
AND Field3 = 3
The indents let me know I'm not done with my WHERE statement and the ANDs being on the left serve a similar purpose.
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February 5, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I'm pretty much good with the above mostly for readability and because SQL was originally designed to be "English like" which doesn't have commas at the beginning.
People who put commas at the beginning do it to make the last entry in a SELECT list easier to comment out. The first entry is easier to comment out if the commas trail. All the other rows between the first and the last row are easy to comment out either way. Since I don't tend to comment out code once I get it working, I stick with the more "English like" habit of trailing commas.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
February 6, 2010 at 12:21 am
I tend to put the commas in front, but that's a habit I get from writing SQL autogenerators, where it's slightly easier to special case the first line of a group than it is the last line.
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February 24, 2010 at 9:41 am
Thanks for your thoughts, guys.
I like the more English-like style, myself. To me it just seems easier to read.
February 25, 2010 at 6:32 am
I like to use the commas in front and the indented AND's, because they signify that something else is in the list and easier to comment out. Also, like the 1=1 after the WHERE clause to comment out one or more AND statements.
SELECT
t.column1
, t.column2
--, t.column3
, t.column4
FROM
table1 t
WHERE
1=1
--AND t.column5 = 'foo'
AND t.column6 = 'bar'
February 25, 2010 at 8:05 am
I usually put commas at the end of the line in production code (I also tend to do one column per line in my SELECT clauses, for readability).
But while developing ad-hoc, or testing, code I'll often use commas in front so that (as Jeff pointed out) it's easier to comment out the last lines.
With ANDs I put them, indented, at the beginning of lines in production (I find this easier to read).
But, as with above, I will often use a different style when doing ad-hoc queries or testing code. Then I'll often put the AND and the clause on separate lines to make it easier to comment out any section of the WHERE clause, beginning, middle or end (this works with columns and commas as well).
Once the code goes into production my main concern is readability, not flexibility.
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