Coldfusion Style Guide

Table of Contents

• Source Code Layout
• Syntax
• Strings
• SQL

Source Code Layout

Nearly everybody is convinced that every style but their own is ugly and unreadable. Leave out the "but their own" and they're probably right...
-- Jerry Coffin (on indentation)

• Use UTF-8 as the source file encoding. ^[link]

• Use one tab per indentation level. ^[link]

# bad - two tabs
<cffunction name="fooBar">
	<cfargument name="foo">
</cffunction>

# good
<cffunction name="fooBar">
	<cfargument name="foo">
</cffunction>

Syntax

• Use one space between the end of the line and the self closing tag ^[link]

# bad - no space
<set name="fooBar" value="#fooBarValue#"/>

# good
<set name="fooBar" value="#fooBarValue#" />

• Never use self closing tags unless you are coding XML (where they are required)

# bad - do not use self closing tags in cfm or cfc files
<cfset variables.fooBar='I am located in a cfm file' />

# good
<cfset variables.fooBar='I am located in a cfm file'>

• No spaces between assigning operators. ^[link]

# bad - using spaces
<cfset test = "this is a variable">

# good
<cfset test="this is a variable">

•  Use camelCase for variables, functions, and argument names. ^[link]

# bad - Function/argument with SnakeCase
<cffunction name="Init">
	<cfargument name="MyObjectId">
</cffunction>

# good
<cffunction name="init">
	<cfargument name="myObjectID">
	...
</cffunction>

# bad - `Id` should be uppercase
<cfset variables.websiteId=12345>

# good
<cfset variables.websiteID=12345>

# bad - Acronyms at the beginning of a variable should be all lowercase
<cfset variables.POSProfileID=12345>

# good
<cfset variables.posProfileID=12345>

# bad - Acronyms in the middle of a variable should be all uppercase
<cfset variables.somePosProfileID=12345>

# good
<cfset variables.somePOSProfileID=12345>

•  Prefer camelCase for resource bundle variables. ^[link]

# bad - resource bundle with SnakeCase
<cfoutput>
	#request.rb('FooBar')#
</cfoutput>

# good
<cfoutput>
	#request.rb('fooBar')#
</cfoutput>

•  Use SnakeCase for object names. ^[link]

# bad - Object with camelCase
<cfcomponent displayname="myObject">

# good
<cfcomponent displayname="MyObject">

• Prefer using a positive comparison in an if statement rather than a double negative. ^[link]

# bad - double negative comparison
<cfif fooBarQuery.queryCount neq 0>
</cfif>

# good
<cfif fooBarQuery.queryCount gt 0>
</cfif>

• Prefer using lowercase english words when comparing multiple variables in a conditional. ^[link]

# bad - use of && and ||
<cfif (variables.isFooBar && variables.isBarFoo) || variables.isAllTheFooBars>
</cfif>

# good
<cfif (variables.isFooBar and variables.isBarFoo) or variables.isAllTheFooBars>
</cfif>

Strings

• Prefer string interpolation rather than string concatenation ^[link]

# bad - string concatenation
<cfset variables.fooBar='The brown fox' & variables.label & 'the fence.'>

# good
<cfset variables.fooBar="The brown fox #variables.label# the fence.">

SQL

• Use WITH(NOLOCK) on all select statements to prevent locking the database table for others. (MSSQL specific) ^[link]

# bad - no WITH(NOLOCK)
<cfquery name="fooBar" datasource="#datasource#">
SELECT *
FROM fooBarTable
</cfquery>

# good
<cfquery name="fooBar" datasource="#datasource#">
SELECT *
FROM fooBarTable WITH(NOLOCK)
</cfquery>

• Uppercase all SQL functions and reserved words. (MSSQL specific) ^[link]

# bad - all SQL functions/words are lowercase
<cfquery name="fooBar" datasource="#datasource#">
select top 1 *, count(*)
from fooBarTable with(nolock)
where columnName like '%foo%'
	and columnName2 = 'bar'
</cfquery>

# good
<cfquery name="fooBar" datasource="#datasource#">
SELECT TOP 1 *, COUNT(*)
FROM fooBarTable WITH(NOLOCK)
WHERE columnName LIKE '%foo%'
	AND columnName2 = 'bar'
</cfquery>