c-cpp.md

C/C++ Coding Style

The coding style for C/C++ mostly follows the K&R Style.

This repository contains a Clang-format file which can be used to format the code automatically based on below rules.

General rules

• Indentation with 4 spaces (tabs not allowed)
• Space before pointer or reference symbols * and & placed adjacent to name (e.g. int *var)
• No space before opening brace of function: void foo(int arg);
• One space after if, for, while and switch statements.
• Always use curly braces for if and for statements, even for one line.
• Curly braces for functions and classes start in next line, for flow statements (if, while, switch, for) in the same line.
• Access modifiers in C++ classes (public, private, protected) are not indented.
• Precompiler statemens (#define, #ifdef, etc.) are not indented.
• Maximum line length of 100 characters
• No spaces at end of a line or in an empty line
• One empty new-line at the end of the file
• Linux-style line-ending (LF or \n)

Naming

• Class names use PascalCase or UpperCamelCase. Acronyms are treated as a single word (a JSON parser is named JsonParser).
• Struct names use snake_case. A typedef with the same name in PascalCase may be used, so that a struct object can be declared similar to a class in C++. Other typedefs for structs (e.g. short names with _t or _s suffix) are not allowed.
• Enums use snake_case for their name and UPPER_CASE for their elements. Typedefs for enums are not allowed.
• Function or method names use snake_case.
• Global and local variables, parameters and class/struct/union member names also use snake_case.
• Preprocessor macros and defines use UPPER_CASE.
• File names are always lower case to prevent incompatibilities between different operating systems.
• Each header file should contain header guard defines using the file path/name in upper case letters (e.g. PATH_TO_MY_FILE_H_) without any underscores _ at the beginning, as names with underscores are reserved for C libraries.

Other

• C++/C99-style comments // are allowed
• Expressions behind defines must be enclosed in braces, e.g. #define (3*1034)
• Comments should be in Doxygen style where applicable.
• Order of includes (see also here): Related header, C system headers, C++ standard library headers, other project headers.

Example

Header file example.h

#ifndef EXAMPLE_H_
#define EXAMPLE_H_

#include <stddef.h>

/**
 * Character buffer to store strings incl. their maximum size
 */
struct buffer
{
    char *str;      ///< Pointer to string in memory
    size_t size;    ///< Maximum size of buffer
};

enum state
{
    STATE_ON,
    STATE_OFF,
};

/**
 * Description of MyClass
 */
class MyClass
{
public:
    MyClass();

private:
    /**
     * Description of member function.
     */
    void member_func(char c);

    /**
     * This variable is used for foo.
     */
    int member_var;
}

/**
 * State machine of this nice embedded hardware
 *
 * @param buf Some description here
 * @param foo Meaning of this variable here
 */
void state_machine(struct buffer *buf, int foo);

#endif /* EXAMPLE_H_ */

Implementation file example.cpp

#include "example.h"

static enum state current_state;

void state_machine(struct buffer *buf, int foo)
{
    switch (current_state) {
        case STATE_ON:
            do_something();
            break;
        case STATE_OFF:
            return;
            break;
    }

    if (buf->str != NULL) {
        // ...
    }
    else {
        // ...
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        // ...
    }
}