For any software application in production and produced by a development team, coding standards are an essential tool for promoting maintainability and quality. Google has recently published their coding standards for R, with a compendium of common-sense tips for keeping an R project in shape. The standards Google R programmers adhere to include:

  • File Names: end in .R 
  • Identifiers: variable.name, FunctionName, kConstantName  
  • Line Length: maximum 80 characters  
  • Indentation: two spaces, no tabs  
  • Curly Braces: first on same line, last on own line  
  • Assignment: use <-, not =  
  • Semicolons: don't use them  
  • Commenting Guidelines: all comments begin with # followed by a space; inline comments need two spaces before the #
Follow the link below to see the other standards and all of the details. (Thanks to Daniel Levine of TechCrunch for the tip.)


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