BikeExchange Ruby Style Guide

Following this guide should make our code:

be more consistent, and therefore predictable
easier to understand, and therefore easier to maintain
avoid common pitfalls, and therefore have less bugs

The recommendations in this guide can be ignored if they contravene the above.

This guide was forked from bbatsov's Ruby Style Guide, which GitHub's internal style guide is based on. Some sections & rules not relevant to coding at BikeExchange (eg, the more advanced metaprogramming stuff) have been removed, along with the original preface.

Modifications or additions to these recommendations should be via pull request so that they can be reviewed by other team members first.

BikeExchange Specific

Avoid use of the Rails scaffold generator. If used, prune the unused code before commit.
If you add a gem to the Gemfile, add a section for it, add it to an existing section, or otherwise make it clear why it's there. It's important that we're able to know when we can remove or replace gems.

ActiveRecord

Prefer use of scope to class methods. Prefer class methods to scope if the resulting SQL ends up bending your brain.

ActiveRecord relations (the result of scopes) are preferrable to arrays, as they self-optimize in certain cases. ActiveRecord::Relation implements most of the methods in Enumerable.

def contrived_example list
  list.count
end

# bad: will need to retrieve every object from the database
puts contrived_example(MyModel.where(...).all)

# good: will generate a "SELECT COUNT(*)" query
puts contrived_example(MyModel.where(...))

Prefer use of hash variables to strings in where() blocks where possible.

# bad
Foo.where("foos.bar = ?", bar)
Foo.joins(:baz).where("baz.quux = ?", bar)

# good
Foo.where(bar: bar)
Foo.joins(:baz).where(baz: { quux: bar})

If where() strings are necessary, ensure that the table name is included. This prevents joins from breaking.
```
# bad
Foo.where("bar != ?", bar)

# good
Foo.where("foos.bar != ?", bar)
```
SQL keywords in strings should be in ALL_CAPS, eg "WHERE foos.foo = 'bar' AND foos.baz != 'quuz'"
Writing validations that reference other models is discouraged: if the other model changes, then your model becomes silently invalid.
ActiveRecord models have an instance variable hash called @attributes_cache. If caching something related to attributes or relationships, put it there: it'll get cleaned when reload is called on your model.

Tests

Integration tests go in spec/features and use Capybara.
Use Cucumber if integration testing procedural & complicated business logic (but only if it's more comfortable for you).
Controller tests should not be integration tests.
Controller tests on 'thin' controllers are discouraged. However, where fat controllers exist, testing them is encouraged.
Don't write view tests. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Don't write tests for 'obvious' behaviour: eg attributes, built-in Rails validations, simple associations & scopes. If the test looks like the code that it's testing, it's probably an obvious test.
Do write tests for complicated scopes.

it block descriptors should describe why the behaviour is expected, not just the expected behaviour.

# bad: we know it returns true: we can see that in the test
it "should return true" do
  # complicated precondition
  foo.should be_true
end

# good
it "should be true when the moon is in phase" # ...

Use context if preconditions end up being repeated. Sometimes it descriptors can then be omitted entirely. Note the use of the subject keyword and RSpec's implied subject magic below.
```
context "when the moon is in phase" do
  before { complicated_precondition }
  subject { foo }
  it { should be_true }
end
```
Non-integration spec files should map directly back to files in app and lib. Guard can then use this to automatically run tests only for that file when those files are changed.
FactoryGirl factories with fixed literals that are referenced in tests (especially factories that cannot be created twice) are considered fixtures, not factories, and should have _fixture added to their name.
The literals in factories should not be referenced in tests. Specify the value when instantiating the factory or use a fixture instead. Changing a literal in a factory to a value that is still valid for that model should not break tests.
Prefer Model.new over FactoryGirl.build(:model) over FactoryGirl.create(:model)
Use of before(:all) is asking for trouble.

BikeExchange Additions

These rules are additions or modifications to rules in the original Ruby Style Guide document.

Source Code Layout

Set your editor to remove whitespace at the end of lines automatically.

Indent the parameters of a method call once if they span more than one line. The closing ) should be on its own line, indented at the original level of the call.

# starting point (line is too long)
def send_mail(source)
  Mailer.deliver(to: 'bob@example.com', from: 'us@example.com', subject: 'Important message', body: source.text)
end

# good (normal indent)
def send_mail(source)
  Mailer.deliver(
    to: 'bob@example.com',
    from: 'us@example.com',
    subject: 'Important message',
    body: source.text
  )
end

# bad (normal indent, closing bracket on same line)
def send_mail(source)
  Mailer.deliver(
    to: 'bob@example.com',
    from: 'us@example.com',
    subject: 'Important message',
    body: source.text)
end


# bad (double indent)
def send_mail(source)
  Mailer.deliver(
      to: 'bob@example.com',
      from: 'us@example.com',
      subject: 'Important message',
      body: source.text
  )
end

# bad (aligned with other parameters)
def send_mail(source)
  Mailer.deliver(to: 'bob@example.com',
                 from: 'us@example.com',
                 subject: 'Important message',
                 body: source.text
                )
end

We don't use line length limits, but lines should not be too long. "too long" is entirely at the programmer's discretion.

Syntax

The names of predicate methods (or boolean attributes) should be such that they make sense when used with RSpec's be_ and has_ matchers, which match the bare method name and have_ methods respectively. This is primarily to preserve tense & format between our booleans. It can be ignored if the be_ and has_ variants make no sense.
```
# bad (nonsensical tests)
def is_online? { ... }
def contains_images? { ... }
foo.should be_is_online
foo.should be_contains_images

# good
def online? { ... }
def has_images? { ... }
foo.should be_online
foo.should have_images
```

Model attributes and getter methods should be nouns, setters and methods that modify state should contain verbs.

# bad: 'show' and 'get' are verbs
class Person
  def get_full_name { names.join(' ') }
  attr_accessor :hide_age
end

# good
class Person
  def full_name { names.join(' ' ) }
  attr_accessor :has_hidden_age
end

Model methods which call ActiveRecord bang methods should include a bang in their method name. This overrides the rules below regarding bang methods requiring a non-bang variant.

# bad (calls update_attributes!)
def mark_as_paid
  update_attributes!(:status => 'paid')
end

# good
def recalculate_online!
  update_online
  save! if changed?
end

If an instance method does not retrieve or modify the instance's state, or otherwise refer to anything specific to that instance, consider making it a class method instead.

Comments

If knowingly contributing to our technical debt load, add a comment prefaced with TODO. Optionally add your name and a date to save us a git blame.
Do not commit commented out code, unless it's part of a 'work in progress' branch. If removing code that will be used later, tag the removal commit instead and push the tag upstream. Apart from keeping our codebase clean, this improves our ability to find where methods & classes are used in our code.

Exceptions

Don't work around the "don't suppress exceptions" rule (in the other Exceptions section) with logging.

# bad - it's not going to be read. really.
begin
  # derp
rescue
  Rails.logger.error "bad things!"
end

If avoiding the "don't suppress exceptions" rules, don't discard the exception information.

# slightly less bad
begin
  # depr
rescue => e
  Rails.logger.error "bad things: #{e}"
end

Source Code Layout

Use UTF-8 as the source file encoding.
Use two spaces per indentation level. No hard tabs.
Use Unix-style line endings
Use spaces around operators, after commas, colons and semicolons, around { and before }. Whitespace might be (mostly) irrelevant to the Ruby interpreter, but its proper use is the key to writing easily readable code.
```
sum = 1 + 2
a, b = 1, 2
1 > 2 ? true : false; puts 'Hi'
[1, 2, 3].each { |e| puts e }
```
The only exception is when using the exponent operator:
```
# bad
e = M * c ** 2

# good
e = M * c**2
```
No spaces after (, [ or before ], ).
```
some(arg).other
[1, 2, 3].length
```

Indent when as deep as case. I know that many would disagree with this one, but it's the style established in both "The Ruby Programming Language" and "Programming Ruby".

case
when song.name == 'Misty'
  puts 'Not again!'
when song.duration > 120
  puts 'Too long!'
when Time.now.hour > 21
  puts "It's too late"
else
  song.play
end

kind = case year
       when 1850..1889 then 'Blues'
       when 1890..1909 then 'Ragtime'
       when 1910..1929 then 'New Orleans Jazz'
       when 1930..1939 then 'Swing'
       when 1940..1950 then 'Bebop'
       else 'Jazz'
       end

Use empty lines between defs and to break up a method into logical paragraphs.

def some_method
  data = initialize(options)

  data.manipulate!

  data.result
end

def some_method
  result
end

Add underscores to large numeric literals to improve their readability.

# bad - how many 0s are there?
num = 1000000

# good - much easier to parse for the human brain
num = 1_000_000

Syntax

Use def with parentheses when there are arguments. Omit the parentheses when the method doesn't accept any arguments.
```
def some_method
  # body omitted
end

def some_method_with_arguments(arg1, arg2)
  # body omitted
end
```
Never use for, unless you know exactly why. Most of the time iterators should be used instead. for is implemented in terms of each (so you're adding a level of indirection), but with a twist - for doesn't introduce a new scope (unlike each) and variables defined in its block will be visible outside it.
```
arr = [1, 2, 3]

# bad
for elem in arr do
  puts elem
end

# good
arr.each { |elem| puts elem }
```

Never use then for multi-line if/unless.

# bad
if some_condition then
  # body omitted
end

# good
if some_condition
  # body omitted
end

Favor the ternary operator(?:) over if/then/else/end constructs. It's more common and obviously more concise.

# bad
result = if some_condition then something else something_else end

# good
result = some_condition ? something : something_else

Use one expression per branch in a ternary operator. This also means that ternary operators must not be nested. Prefer if/else constructs in these cases.

# bad
some_condition ? (nested_condition ? nested_something : nested_something_else) : something_else

# good
if some_condition
  nested_condition ? nested_something : nested_something_else
else
  something_else
end

Never use if x; .... Use the ternary operator instead.
Never use when x; .... See the previous rule.
Use &&/|| for boolean expressions, and/or for control flow. (Rule of thumb: If you have to use outer parentheses, you are using the wrong operators.)
```
# boolean expression
if some_condition && some_other_condition
  do_something
end

# control flow
document.saved? or document.save!
```
Avoid multi-line ?: (the ternary operator); use if/unless instead.

Favor modifier if/unless usage when you have a single-line body. Another good alternative is the usage of control flow and/or.

# bad
if some_condition
  do_something
end

# good
do_something if some_condition

# another good option
some_condition and do_something

Favor unless over if for negative conditions (or control flow or).

# bad
do_something if !some_condition

# good
do_something unless some_condition

# another good option
some_condition or do_something

Never use unless with else. Rewrite these with the positive case first.

# bad
unless success?
  puts 'failure'
else
  puts 'success'
end

# good
if success?
  puts 'success'
else
  puts 'failure'
end

Don't use parentheses around the condition of an if/unless/while, unless the condition contains an assignment (see "Using the return value of =" below).

# bad
if (x > 10)
  # body omitted
end

# good
if x > 10
  # body omitted
end

# ok
if (x = self.next_value)
  # body omitted
end

Favor modifier while/until usage when you have a single-line body.

# bad
while some_condition
  do_something
end

# good
do_something while some_condition

Favor until over while for negative conditions.

# bad
do_something while !some_condition

# good
do_something until some_condition

Omit parentheses around parameters for methods that are part of an internal DSL (e.g. Rake, Rails, RSpec), methods that have "keyword" status in Ruby (e.g. attr_reader, puts) and attribute access methods. Use parentheses around the arguments of all other method invocations.
```
class Person
  attr_reader :name, :age

  # omitted
end

temperance = Person.new('Temperance', 30)
temperance.name

puts temperance.age

x = Math.sin(y)
array.delete(e)
```
Prefer {...} over do...end for single-line blocks. Avoid using {...} for multi-line blocks (multiline chaining is always ugly). Always use do...end for "control flow" and "method definitions" (e.g. in Rakefiles and certain DSLs). Avoid do...end when chaining.
```
names = ['Bozhidar', 'Steve', 'Sarah']

# good
names.each { |name| puts name }

# bad
names.each do |name|
  puts name
end

# good
names.select { |name| name.start_with?('S') }.map { |name| name.upcase }

# bad
names.select do |name|
  name.start_with?('S')
end.map { |name| name.upcase }
```
Some will argue that multiline chaining would look OK with the use of {...}, but they should ask themselves - is this code really readable and can the blocks' contents be extracted into nifty methods?

Avoid return where not required for flow of control.

# bad
def some_method(some_arr)
  return some_arr.size
end

# good
def some_method(some_arr)
  some_arr.size
end

Avoid self where not required. (It is only required when calling a self write accessor.)

# bad
def ready?
  if self.last_reviewed_at > self.last_updated_at
    self.worker.update(self.content, self.options)
    self.status = :in_progress
  end
  self.status == :verified
end

# good
def ready?
  if last_reviewed_at > last_updated_at
    worker.update(content, options)
    self.status = :in_progress
  end
  status == :verified
end

As a corollary, avoid shadowing methods with local variables unless they are both equivalent.

class Foo
  attr_accessor :options

  # ok
  def initialize(options)
    self.options = options
    # both options and self.options are equivalent here
  end

  # bad
  def do_something(options = {})
    unless options[:when] == :later
      output(self.options[:message])
    end
  end

  # good
  def do_something(params = {})
    unless params[:when] == :later
      output(options[:message])
    end
  end
end

Use spaces around the = operator when assigning default values to method parameters:
```
# bad
def some_method(arg1=:default, arg2=nil, arg3=[])
  # do something...
end

# good
def some_method(arg1 = :default, arg2 = nil, arg3 = [])
  # do something...
end
```
While several Ruby books suggest the first style, the second is much more prominent in practice (and arguably a bit more readable).

Avoid line continuation (\) where not required. In practice, avoid using line continuations at all.

# bad
result = 1 - \
         2

# good (but still ugly as hell)
result = 1 \
         - 2

Don't use the return value of = (an assignment) in conditional expressions.

# bad (+ a warning)
if (v = array.grep(/foo/))
  do_something(v)
  ...
end

# bad (+ a warning)
if v = array.grep(/foo/)
  do_something(v)
  ...
end

# good
v = array.grep(/foo/)
if v
  do_something(v)
  ...
end

Use ||= freely to initialize variables.

# set name to Bozhidar, only if it's nil or false
name ||= 'Bozhidar'

Don't use ||= to initialize boolean variables. (Consider what would happen if the current value happened to be false.)

# bad - would set enabled to true even if it was false
enabled ||= true

# good
enabled = true if enabled.nil?

Avoid using Perl-style special variables (like $0-9, $, etc. ). They are quite cryptic and their use in anything but one-liner scripts is discouraged.
Never put a space between a method name and the opening parenthesis.
```
# bad
f (3 + 2) + 1

# good
f(3 + 2) + 1
```
If the first argument to a method begins with an open parenthesis, always use parentheses in the method invocation. For example, write f((3 + 2) + 1).
Always run the Ruby interpreter with the -w option so it will warn you if you forget either of the rules above!

Use the new lambda literal syntax.

# bad
lambda = lambda { |a, b| a + b }
lambda.call(1, 2)

# good
lambda = ->(a, b) { a + b }
lambda.(1, 2)

Use _ for unused block parameters.

# bad
result = hash.map { |k, v| v + 1 }

# good
result = hash.map { |_, v| v + 1 }

Naming

The only real difficulties in programming are cache invalidation and naming things.
-- Phil Karlton

Name identifiers in English.

# bad - variable name written in Bulgarian with latin characters
zaplata = 1000

# good
salary = 1000

Use snake_case for symbols, methods and variables.

# bad
:'some symbol'
:SomeSymbol
:someSymbol

someVar = 5

def someMethod
  ...
end

def SomeMethod
 ...
end

# good
:some_symbol

def some_method
  ...
end

Use CamelCase for classes and modules. (Keep acronyms like HTTP, RFC, XML uppercase.)

# bad
class Someclass
  ...
end

class Some_Class
  ...
end

class SomeXml
  ...
end

# good
class SomeClass
  ...
end

class SomeXML
  ...
end

Use SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE for other constants.

# bad
SomeConst = 5

# good
SOME_CONST = 5

The names of predicate methods (methods that return a boolean value) should end in a question mark. (i.e. Array#empty?).

The names of potentially dangerous methods (i.e. methods that modify self or the arguments, exit! (doesn't run the finalizers like exit does), etc.) should end with an exclamation mark if there exists a safe version of that dangerous method.

# bad - there is not matching 'safe' method
class Person
  def update!
  end
end

# good
class Person
  def update
  end
end

# good
class Person
  def update!
  end

  def update
  end
end

When using reduce with short blocks, name the arguments |a, e| (accumulator, element).
When defining binary operators, name the argument other.
```
def +(other)
  # body omitted
end
```
Prefer map over collect, find over detect, select over find_all, reduce over inject and size over length. This is not a hard requirement; if the use of the alias enhances readability, it's ok to use it. The rhyming methods are inherited from Smalltalk and are not common in other programming languages. The reason the use of select is encouraged over find_all is that it goes together nicely with reject and its name is pretty self-explanatory.
Use flat_map instead of map + flatten. This does not apply for arrays with a depth greater than 2, i.e. if users.first.songs == ['a', ['b','c']], then use map + flatten rather than flat_map. flat_map flattens the array by 1, whereas flatten flattens it all the way.
```
# bad
all_songs = users.map(&:songs).flatten.uniq

# good
all_songs = users.flat_map(&:songs).uniq
```

Comments

Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?" Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.
-- Steve McConnell

Comments longer than a word are capitalized and use punctuation. Use one space after periods.

Avoid superfluous comments.

# bad
counter += 1 # increments counter by one

Keep existing comments up-to-date. An outdated comment is worse than no comment at all.

Classes

Use a consistent structure in your class definitions.

class Person
  # extend and include go first
  extend SomeModule
  include AnotherModule

  # constants are next
  SOME_CONSTANT = 20

  # afterwards we have attribute macros
  attr_reader :name

  # followed by other macros (if any)
  validates :name

  # public class methods are next in line
  def self.some_method
  end

  # followed by public instance methods
  def some_method
  end

  # protected and private methods are grouped near the end
  protected

  def some_protected_method
  end

  private

  def some_private_method
  end
end

When designing class hierarchies make sure that they conform to the Liskov Substitution Principle.
Try to make your classes as [SOLID](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design\)) as possible.

Always supply a proper to_s method for classes that represent domain objects.

class Person
  attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

  def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
  end

  def to_s
    "#{@first_name} #{@last_name}"
  end
end

Use the attr family of functions to define trivial accessors or mutators.

# bad
class Person
  def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
  end

  def first_name
    @first_name
  end

  def last_name
    @last_name
  end
end

# good
class Person
  attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

  def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
  end
end

Consider using Struct.new, which defines the trivial accessors, constructor and comparison operators for you.

# good
class Person
  attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

  def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
  end
end

# better
Person = Struct.new(:first_name, :last_name) do
end

Don't extend a Struct.new - it already is a new class. Extending it introduces a superfluous class level and may also introduce weird errors if the file is required multiple times.
Consider adding factory methods to provide additional sensible ways to create instances of a particular class.
```
class Person
  def self.create(options_hash)
    # body omitted
  end
end
```

Prefer duck-typing over inheritance.

# bad
class Animal
  # abstract method
  def speak
  end
end

# extend superclass
class Duck < Animal
  def speak
    puts 'Quack! Quack'
  end
end

# extend superclass
class Dog < Animal
  def speak
    puts 'Bau! Bau!'
  end
end

# good
class Duck
  def speak
    puts 'Quack! Quack'
  end
end

class Dog
  def speak
    puts 'Bau! Bau!'
  end
end

Avoid the usage of class (@@) variables due to their "nasty" behavior in inheritance.
```
class Parent
  @@class_var = 'parent'

  def self.print_class_var
    puts @@class_var
  end
end

class Child < Parent
  @@class_var = 'child'
end

Parent.print_class_var # => will print "child"
```
As you can see all the classes in a class hierarchy actually share one class variable. Class instance variables should usually be preferred over class variables.
Assign proper visibility levels to methods (private, protected) in accordance with their intended usage. Don't go off leaving everything public (which is the default). After all we're coding in Ruby now, not in Python.
Indent the public, protected, and private methods as much the method definitions they apply to. Leave one blank line above the visibility modifier and one blank line below in order to emphasize that it applies to all methods below it.
```
class SomeClass
  def public_method
    # ...
  end

  private

  def private_method
    # ...
  end

  def another_private_method
    # ...
  end
end
```

Use def self.method to define singleton methods. This makes the code easier to refactor since the class name is not repeated.

class TestClass
  # bad
  def TestClass.some_method
    # body omitted
  end

  # good
  def self.some_other_method
    # body omitted
  end

  # Also possible and convenient when you
  # have to define many singleton methods.
  class << self
    def first_method
      # body omitted
    end

    def second_method_etc
      # body omitted
    end
  end
end

Exceptions

Signal exceptions using the fail method. Use raise only when catching an exception and re-raising it (because here you're not failing, but explicitly and purposefully raising an exception).
```
begin
  fail 'Oops';
rescue => error
  raise if error.message != 'Oops'
end
```
Never return from an ensure block. If you explicitly return from a method inside an ensure block, the return will take precedence over any exception being raised, and the method will return as if no exception had been raised at all. In effect, the exception will be silently thrown away.
```
def foo
  begin
    fail
  ensure
    return 'very bad idea'
  end
end
```

Use implicit begin blocks where possible.

# bad
def foo
  begin
    # main logic goes here
  rescue
    # failure handling goes here
  end
end

# good
def foo
  # main logic goes here
rescue
  # failure handling goes here
end

Mitigate the proliferation of begin blocks by using contingency methods (a term coined by Avdi Grimm).

# bad
begin
  something_that_might_fail
rescue IOError
  # handle IOError
end

begin
  something_else_that_might_fail
rescue IOError
  # handle IOError
end

# good
def with_io_error_handling
   yield
rescue IOError
  # handle IOError
end

with_io_error_handling { something_that_might_fail }

with_io_error_handling { something_else_that_might_fail }

Don't suppress exceptions.

# bad
begin
  # an exception occurs here
rescue SomeError
  # the rescue clause does absolutely nothing
end

# bad
do_something rescue nil

Avoid using rescue in its modifier form.

# bad - this catches all StandardError exceptions
do_something rescue nil

Don't use exceptions for flow of control.

# bad
begin
  n / d
rescue ZeroDivisionError
  puts 'Cannot divide by 0!'
end

# good
if d.zero?
  puts 'Cannot divide by 0!'
else
  n / d
end

Avoid rescuing the Exception class. This will trap signals and calls to exit, requiring you to kill -9 the process.

# bad
begin
  # calls to exit and kill signals will be caught (except kill -9)
  exit
rescue Exception
  puts "you didn't really want to exit, right?"
  # exception handling
end

# good
begin
  # a blind rescue rescues from StandardError, not Exception as many
  # programmers assume.
rescue => e
  # exception handling
end

# also good
begin
  # an exception occurs here

rescue StandardError => e
  # exception handling
end

Put more specific exceptions higher up the rescue chain, otherwise they'll never be rescued from.

# bad
begin
  # some code
rescue Exception => e
  # some handling
rescue StandardError => e
  # some handling
end

# good
begin
  # some code
rescue StandardError => e
  # some handling
rescue Exception => e
  # some handling
end

Release external resources obtained by your program in an ensure block.

f = File.open('testfile')
begin
  # .. process
rescue
  # .. handle error
ensure
  f.close unless f.nil?
end

Favor the use of exceptions for the standard library over introducing new exception classes.

Collections

Prefer literal array and hash creation notation (unless you need to pass parameters to their constructors, that is).
```
# bad
arr = Array.new
hash = Hash.new

# good
arr = []
hash = {}
```

Prefer %w to the literal array syntax when you need an array of strings.

# bad
STATES = ['draft', 'open', 'closed']

# good
STATES = %w(draft open closed)

Avoid the creation of huge gaps in arrays.

arr = []
arr[100] = 1 # now you have an array with lots of nils

Use Set instead of Array when dealing with unique elements. Set implements a collection of unordered values with no duplicates. This is a hybrid of Array's intuitive inter-operation facilities and Hash's fast lookup.

Prefer symbols instead of strings as hash keys.

# bad
hash = { 'one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3 }

# good
hash = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 }

Avoid the use of mutable objects as hash keys.

Use the hash literal syntax when your hash keys are symbols.

# bad
hash = { :one => 1, :two => 2, :three => 3 }

# good
hash = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 }

Use fetch when dealing with hash keys that should be present.

heroes = { batman: 'Bruce Wayne', superman: 'Clark Kent' }
# bad - if we make a mistake we might not spot it right away
heroes[:batman] # => "Bruce Wayne"
heroes[:supermann] # => nil

# good - fetch raises a KeyError making the problem obvious
heroes.fetch(:supermann)

Rely on the fact that as of Ruby 1.9 hashes are ordered.
Never modify a collection while traversing it.

Strings

Prefer string interpolation instead of string concatenation:

# bad
email_with_name = user.name + ' <' + user.email + '>'

# good
email_with_name = "#{user.name} <#{user.email}>"

Don't leave out {} around instance and global variables being interpolated into a string.

class Person
  attr_reader :first_name, :last_name

  def initialize(first_name, last_name)
    @first_name = first_name
    @last_name = last_name
  end

  # bad - valid, but awkward
  def to_s
    "#@first_name #@last_name"
  end

  # good
  def to_s
    "#{@first_name} #{@last_name}"
  end
end

$global = 0
# bad
puts "$global = #$global"

# good
puts "$global = #{$global}"

Avoid using String#+ when you need to construct large data chunks. Instead, use String#<<. Concatenation mutates the string instance in-place and is always faster than String#+, which creates a bunch of new string objects.
```
# good and also fast
html = ''
html << '<h1>Page title</h1>'

paragraphs.each do |paragraph|
  html << "<p>#{paragraph}</p>"
end
```

Regular Expressions

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
-- Jamie Zawinski

Don't use regular expressions if you just need plain text search in string: string['text']

For simple constructions you can use regexp directly through string index.

match = string[/regexp/]             # get content of matched regexp
first_group = string[/text(grp)/, 1] # get content of captured group
string[/text (grp)/, 1] = 'replace'  # string => 'text replace'

Use non-capturing groups when you don't use captured result of parentheses.
```
/(first|second)/   # bad
/(?:first|second)/ # good
```

Avoid using $1-9 as it can be hard to track what they contain. Named groups can be used instead.

# bad
/(regexp)/ =~ string
...
process $1

# good
/(?<meaningful_var>regexp)/ =~ string
...
process meaningful_var

Character classes have only a few special characters you should care about: ^, -, \, ], so don't escape . or brackets in [].
Be careful with ^ and $ as they match start/end of line, not string endings. If you want to match the whole string use: \A and \z (not to be confused with \Z which is the equivalent of /\n?\z/).
```
string = "some injection\nusername"
string[/^username$/]   # matches
string[/\Ausername\z/] # don't match
```

Use x modifier for complex regexps. This makes them more readable and you can add some useful comments. Just be careful as spaces are ignored.

regexp = %r{
  start         # some text
  \s            # white space char
  (group)       # first group
  (?:alt1|alt2) # some alternation
  end
}x

For complex replacements sub/gsub can be used with block or hash.

Percent Literals

Use %() for single-line strings which require both interpolation and embedded double-quotes. For multi-line strings, prefer heredocs.

# bad (no interpolation needed)
%(<div class="text">Some text</div>)
# should be '<div class="text">Some text</div>'

# bad (no double-quotes)
%(This is #{quality} style)
# should be "This is #{quality} style"

# bad (multiple lines)
%(<div>\n<span class="big">#{exclamation}</span>\n</div>)
# should be a heredoc.

# good (requires interpolation, has quotes, single line)
%(<tr><td class="name">#{name}</td>)

Use %r only for regular expressions matching more than one '/' character.

# bad
%r(\s+)

# still bad
%r(^/(.*)$)
# should be /^\/(.*)$/

# good
%r(^/blog/2011/(.*)$)

Avoid %q, %Q, %x, %s, and %W.
Prefer () as delimiters for all % literals.

Misc

Write ruby -w safe code.
Avoid hashes as optional parameters. Does the method do too much?
Avoid methods longer than 10 LOC (lines of code). Ideally, most methods will be shorter than 5 LOC. Empty lines do not contribute to the relevant LOC.
Avoid parameter lists longer than three or four parameters.
If you really need "global" methods, add them to Kernel and make them private.

Use class instance variables instead of global variables.

#bad
$foo_bar = 1

#good
class Foo
  class << self
    attr_accessor :bar
  end
end

Foo.bar = 1

Avoid alias when alias_method will do.
Use OptionParser for parsing complex command line options and ruby -s for trivial command line options.
Code in a functional way, avoiding mutation when that makes sense.
Do not mutate arguments unless that is the purpose of the method.
Avoid more than three levels of block nesting.
Be consistent. In an ideal world, be consistent with these guidelines.
Use common sense.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 266 Commits
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
README.md		README.md

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Repository files navigation

BikeExchange Ruby Style Guide

Table of Contents

BikeExchange Specific

ActiveRecord

Tests

BikeExchange Additions

Source Code Layout

Syntax

Comments

Exceptions

Source Code Layout

Syntax

Naming

Comments

Classes

Exceptions

Collections

Strings

Regular Expressions

Percent Literals

Misc

About

Uh oh!

Releases

Packages

parndt/ruby-style-guide

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

BikeExchange Ruby Style Guide

Table of Contents

BikeExchange Specific

ActiveRecord

Tests

BikeExchange Additions

Source Code Layout

Syntax

Comments

Exceptions

Source Code Layout

Syntax

Naming

Comments

Classes

Exceptions

Collections

Strings

Regular Expressions

Percent Literals

Misc

About

Resources

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages 0

Packages