begin as an afterword

[TheDoubleH]

Discuss the `begin-as-an-afterword' best practice posted here

[rsaritzky]

I'm a bit older than most here, but when I first learned structured programming (learning ALGOL and COBOL), the BEGIN was always indented and on a separate line:

IF <Condition> THEN
  BEGIN
     <code>
  END

I was surprised to see the opposite in C/AL coding guidelines when I first started with NAV

And, in fact, I don't think the C/AL / AL guidelines cascade this into the CASE statement. I don't recall anyone doing this:

CASE <VALUE> OF
  Value1: BEGIN
     <code>
    END;
  Value2: BEGIN
     <code>
  END;
END;

Isn't it always:

CASE <VALUE> OF
  Value1: 
    BEGIN
       <code>
    END;
  Value2: 
    BEGIN
     <code>
    END;
END;

?

[git-no]

In my point of view, one of the main priorities beside valid code should be the readability, because a user has to maintain the code.

Case Statement

• It improves the readability of a case statement if begin and end are on separate lines.
• Beside this, if the command of the case is only online line it does not need a begin and end and is less code to read.

case true of
  var1:
    <command>;
  var2:
    <command>;
end;

If Statement

• One line ìf` statement should be without begin/end

if <Condition> then
  <Command>;

• Regular if statement

if <Condition> then begin
  <Command>;
  <Command>;
end;

• Multi condition if statement, especially if the condition is long

if 
  <Condition> or 
  <Condition> or
  <Condition>
then begin
  <Command>;
  <Command>;
end;