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Coding Style Guide

The Scala.js project has a strict policy regarding coding style. This is one of the cornerstones that has allowed Scala.js to maintain a clean, consistent and maintainable codebase.

This document tries to document the style in use as much as possible to make it easier for everyone to contribute.

A few of these rules are checked automatically using Scalastyle, but most of them are too complex to teach to an automated tool.

The Scala.js core team has decided to designate a single developer to drive and "maintain" the project's coding style. This allows us to maintain a consistent, yet flexible style. Everyone in the core team follows the style maintainer's directions. Currently @sjrd maintains the Scala.js coding style. Please follow his directions if they are in conflict with the present document. Feel free to point out the conflict, though: we are always looking to improve this document.

General style (whitespaces, braces, etc.)

Tabs, new lines, and eofs

  • Files must not contain tabs
  • New lines are UNIX style (\n)
  • A final new line must be present at the end of file
  • There must not be whitespace characters at the end of a line

Line length

Lines should be limited at 80 characters. In some cases, if breaking a line makes it significantly less readable, it can go up to 120 characters.

Rationale: when reviewing on GitHub, only 120 characters are visible; when reviewing on a mobile phone, only 80 characters are visible. And we do review on mobile phone quite a lot.

Where to break a line

A line can be broken after either a , or a (, or possibly after a binary operator in a long expression.

Indentation

In general, indentation is 2 spaces, except continuation lines, which are indented 4 spaces. A continuation line is a line appearing because we broke something that should have been on one line for line length reasons. Typically, this means inside parentheses (formal or actual parameters of methods and constructors), and a long extends clause.

Note that breaking a line right after the = sign of an initialization or assignment is not considered a continuation line, because it's not really breaking the line: instead, we just choose to put the rhs on its dedicated line, indented 2 spaces (similarly to the branches of an if). For example:

val x =
  aLongFunctionCall()

Further, parenthesized lists that have a single element per line are not considered continuation lines. For example, the following two are allowed:

// "Binpacked style"
f(arg1, arg2,
    arg3, arg4)

// "List style"
f(
  arg1,
  arg2,
  arg3,
  arg4,
)

Notes about the list style:

  • The parentheses must be on individual lines.
  • The trailing comma is mandatory.
  • This style is relatively new, so a lot of code does not comply to it; apply the boy scout rule where this does not cause unnecessary diffs.

Blank lines

  • Never put two blank lines in a row
  • (Almost) always put a blank line between two declarations in a class
  • Insert blank lines at will between logical blocks of statements in a method
  • Always put blank lines around a case whose body contains a blank line
  • In general, if some kind of block of code contains a blank line inside it, it should also be surrounded by blank lines (this prevents the brain from visually parsing blocks in the wrong way)

The blank line between two consecutive declarations in a class can sometimes be omitted, if the declarations are single-line (which also means Scaladocless) and strongly related. This happens pretty rarely (mostly a series of private fields). The rule of thumb is to always put a blank line.

Braces

Braces should not be used for one-liner methods. Similarly, you should not use braces for the body of a while/if/for that is a one-liner.

def plus(x: Int, y: Int): Int =
  x + y

def clamp(v: Int, min: Int, max: Int): Int = {
  if (v < min) min
  else if (v > max) max
  else v
}

Every expression that spans more than one line should be enclosed in braces. For example, this is wrong:

val iterator =
  new Iterator[A] {
    ...
  }

It should be:

val iterator = {
  new Iterator[A] {
    ...
  }
}

Two-liner if/else

As an exception to the above rule, when a two-liner if/else (see section about if/else in general) is used as the right-hand-side of a definition or assignment, i.e., after an = sign, the braces around it can and should be omitted. For example:

def abs(x: Int): Int =
  if (x >= 0) x
  else -x

Note that the following formatting is not considered a two-liner if/else, and is therefore not valid:

def abs(x: Int): Int =
  if (x >= 0)
    x
  else
    -x

Long expressions with binary operators

Very long expressions consisting of binary operators at their "top-level" can be broken without indentation if they are alone in their brace-delimited block or their actual parameter. This happens mostly for long chains of &&s, ||s, or string concatenations. Here is an example:

val isValidIdent = {
  ident != "" &&
  ident.charAt(0).isUnicodeIdentifierStart &&
  ident.tail.forall(_.isUnicodeIdentifierPart)
}

if (!isValidIdent) {
  reportError(
      "This string is very long and will " +
      "span several lines.")
}

Braces in lambdas

In lambdas (anonymous functions), the opening brace must be placed before the formal arguments, and not after the =>:

val f = { (x: Int) =>
  body
}

If the first line ends up being two long, the parameter list should go the next line, and the body indented with two more spaces:

val someLongIdentifierWithHighIdentation = {
  (x: Int, ys: List[Traversable[String]]) =>
    body
}

If a lambda is a one-liner, we do not use braces at all:

val f = (x: Int) => body

val ys = xs.map(x => x + 1)

Spaces

There must not be any space before the following tokens: : , ; )

There must be exactly one space after the following tokens: : , ; if for while

There must be exactly one space before the tokens = and =>, and either exactly one space or a new line after them. Exception: => may be vertically aligned instead in some scenarios: see the "Pattern matching" section.

There must be exactly one space before and after { and }. With the exception of partial import, where there is no space on either side.

Binary operators must have a single space on both sides. Unary operators must not be followed by a space.

Method call style

Usually, parentheses should be used for actual parameters to a method call. Braces should be used instead if an argument list has only a lambda, and that lambda does not fit in an inline one-liner.

In general, dot-notation should be used for non-symbolic methods, and infix notation should be used for symbolic methods.

Examples:

// inline lambda, hence ()
list.map(x => x * 2)

// long lambda, hence braces
list.map { x =>
  if (x < 5) x
  else x * 2
}

// symbolic operator, hence infix notation
value :: list

When calling a method declared with an empty pair of parentheses, always use (). Not doing so causes (fatal) warnings when calling Scala-declared methods in Scala 2.13.3+. For consistency, we also apply this rule to all Java-defined methods, including toString().

Method definition

All public and protected methods must have an explicit result type. Private methods are encouraged to have an explicit result type as well, as it helps reading the code. Local methods do not need an explicit result type.

Procedure syntax must not be used. : Unit = must be used instead.

Side-effect-free methods without formal parameters should be declared without (), unless either a) it overrides a method defined with () (such as toString()) or b) it implements a Java method in the Java libraries.

The signature of a method is technically a single line, and hence, if it has to be broken due to line length reasons, subsequent lines should be indented 4 spaces. As a reminder, the line can be broken right after a , or a ( (and not, for example, after implicit or :). You should avoid breaking the line between the last parameter and the result type; going over the 80 characters limit is preferred in that case.

for comprehensions

for comprehensions may only use () if they have a single generator without if, such as:

for (i <- 0 until n)
  doStuff(i)

Otherwise, it must use {}, and there must be one generator per line. Guards (ifs) may be either on the same line as a generator, or on a dedicated line. The body of the for is then automatically surrounding by braces too, even if it is a one-liner:

for {
  i <- 0 until n
  j <- 0 until i
} {
  doStuff(i, j)
}

The yield keyword should be placed at the end of the for line, followed by braces:

for (x <- xs) yield {
  x * 2
}

For short yield blocks, the following can be used instead:

for (x <- xs)
  yield x * 2

With the multi-line brace for, the yield must be placed like this:

for {
  i <- 0 until n
  j <- 0 until i
} yield {
  thing(i, j)
}

Imports

Imports must follow the following format:

import scala.language.implicitConversions

import scala.collection.mutable

import java.{util => ju}

import org.scalajs.linker._
import org.scalajs.linker.standard._

Language imports must always come first, and must always be at the top of the file (right after the package declaration). There must not be language imports in narrower scopes.

If you import more than 3 or so items from a namespace, use a wildcard import.

Avoid importing mutable collections directly; prefer importing mutable and then use mutable.ListBuffer.

Scaladoc

Scaladoc comments that fit in one line must be written as

/** Returns the maximum of a and b. */
def max(a: Int, b: Int): Int = ???

Multi-line Scaladoc comments must use the following style:

/** Returns the maximum of a and b.
 *
 *  If a > b, returns a. Otherwise returns b.
 */
def max(a: Int, b: Int): Int = ???

Non-Scaladoc comments

Normal comments fitting on one-line should use //. A comment that does not fit on one line should use the multi-line comment syntax and follow this style:

/* This complicated algorithm computes the maximum of two integer values a
 * and b. If a > b, it computes a, otherwise it computes b.
 */

Class declaration

A class declaration, together with its constructor parameters, its extends clause, and its self type, is technically a single line. Example:

class Foo(val x: Int) extends Bar with Foobar { self =>

However, this tends to become too long in many cases.

If the declaration does not fit on one line, the first thing to do is to put the self type on a dedicated line, indented 2 spaces only, and followed by a blank line:

class Foo(val x: Int) extends Bar with Foobar {
  self =>

  // declarations start here

The second thing to do is to break the line just before the extends keyword, indented 4 spaces:

class Foo(val x: Int)
    extends Bar with Foobar {

  // declarations start here

The extends clause can be further broken up before withs, if necessary. Additional lines are also indented 4 spaces wrt. the class keyword.

class Foo(val x: Int)
    extends Bar with Foobar with AnotherTrait with YetAnotherTrait
    with HowManyTraitsAreThere with TooManyTraits {

  // declarations start here

If too long in itself, the list of constructor parameters should be broken similarly to formal parameters to a method, i.e., indented 4 spaces, and followed by a blank line:

class Foo(val x: Int, val y: Int,
    val z: Int)
    extends Bar with Foobar {

  // declarations start here

If the constructor parameters are a (long) list of "configuration" parameters, the list style (as opposed to binpacking) should be used:

class Foo(
  val width: Int = 1,
  val height: Int = 1,
  val depthOfField: Int = 3
) extends Bar with Foobar {

Note that there is no vertical alignment, neither for the type nor the default value (if any). If there are several parameter lists (e.g., with an implicit parameter list), each parameter list follows its rules independently of the others, i.e., organizing one parameter list vertically does not mean another list should be organized vertically as well. For example:

class Foo[A](
  val width: Int = 1,
  val height: Int = 1,
  val depthOfField: Int = 3
)(implicit ct: ClassTag[A])
    extends Bar with Foobar with AnotherTrait with YetAnotherTrait
    with HowManyTraitsAreThere with TooManyTraits {

Usages of higher-order methods

Option and js.UndefOr

Use the higher-order methods in the APIs of Option and js.UndefOr rather than doing pattern matching. Note particularly the fold method, which should be used instead of the map+getOrElse combination.

Collections

Higher-order methods should be favored over loops and tail-recursive methods wherever possible and readable.

Do not reinvent the wheel: use the most appropriate method in the collection API (e.g., use forall instead of a custom-made foldLeft).

Methods other than foreach should however be avoided if the lambda that is passed to them has side-effects. In other words, a foldLeft with a side-effecting function should be avoided, and a while loop or a foreach used instead.

Use xs.map(x => x * 2) instead of for (x <- xs) yield x * 2 for short, one-liner maps, flatMaps and foreaches. Otherwise, favor for comprehensions.

For comprehensions and ranges

Do not fear for over ranges. The Scala.js optimizer inlines them away.

if/else

An if/else pair in expression position can be written as

val x =
  if (condition) someExpr
  else anotherExpr

assuming both lines fit in the line length limit. We call this formatting a two-liner if/else.

Otherwise, both expressions should be put on separate lines, and indented 2 spaces. In addition, the rhs of the = must then be surrounded in braces:

val x = {
  if (condition)
    someExpr
  else
    anotherExpr
}

If one of the brances requires braces, then put braces on both branches (or all branches if it is a chain of if/elses):

val x = {
  if (condition) {
    val x = someExpr
    x + 5
  } else if (secondCondition) {
    anotherExpr
  } else {
    aThirdExpr
  }
}

ifs and if/elses in statement position must always have their branch(es) on dedicated lines. The following example is incorrect:

if (index >= size) throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException

if (x > y) i += 1
else i -= 1

and should instead be formatted as:

if (index >= size)
  throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException

if (x > y)
  i += 1
else
  i -= 1

If the condition of an if (or while, for that matter) is too long, it can be broken at most once with 4 spaces of indentation. In that case, the if and else parts must be surrounded by braces, even if they are single-line. Obviously, the two-liner if/else formatting cannot be applied.

If the condition is so long that two lines are not enough, then it should be extracted in a local val or def before it, such as:

val ident: String = ???

def isValidIdent = {
  ident != "" &&
  ident.charAt(0).isUnicodeIdentifierStart &&
  ident.tail.forall(_.isUnicodeIdentifierPart)
}
if (isValidIdent)
  doSomething()
else
  doSomethingElse()

Pattern matching

One-liner cases should be written on one line, and the arrows aligned:

x match {
  case Foo(a, b) => a + b
  case Bar(y)    => 2 * y
}

If the body of a case does not fit on the same line, then put the body on the next line, indented 2 spaces, without braces around it. In that case, also put blank lines around that case, and do not align its arrow with the other cases:

x match {
  case Foo(a, b) =>
    val x = a + b
    x * 2
  case Bar(y) =>
    if (y < 5) y
    else y * 2
}

A single pattern match can have both one-liners with aligned arrows and multi-line cases. In that case, there must be a blank line between every change of style:

x match {
  case Foo(a, b) => a + b
  case Bar(y)    => 2 * y

  case Foobar(y, z) =>
    if (y < 5) z
    else z * 2
}

The arrows of multi-line cases must never be aligned with other arrows, either from neighboring multi-line cases or from blocks of one-liner cases.

When pattern-matching based on specific subtypes of a value, reuse the same identifier for the refined binding, e.g.,

that match {
  case that: Foo => that.bar == 5
  case _         => false
}

When using type-based pattern matching combined with alternatives (using |), remove the space after the : operator:

that match {
  case _:Foo | _:Bar | _:Foobar => true
  case _                        => false
}

This helps visually parsing the relative priority of : over |.

As a reminder, avoid pattern-matching on Option types. Use fold instead.

Explicit types

As already mentioned, public and protected defs must always have explicit types. Private defs are encouraged to have an explicit type as well.

Public and protected vals and vars of public classes and traits should also have explicit types, as they are part of the binary API, and therefore must not be subject to the whims of type inference.

Private vals and vars as well as local vals, vars and defs typically need not have an explicit type. They can have one if it helps readability or type inference.

Sometimes, vars need an explicit type because their initial value has a more specific type than required (e.g., None.type even though we assign it later to a List).

Implementing the Java lib

Special rules apply to implementing classes of the JDK (typically in javalanglib/ or javalib/).

Order of declarations

Fields and methods should be declared in the order in which they appear in the JavaDoc. Note that in the JavaDoc, you first see a summary of the members, which is always ordered alphabetically. This is not the order you should follow. Instead, you should follow the order in which the full descriptions of the members appear.

Parameterless methods

Methods without parameters should always be declared with (), regardless of whether they have side-effects or not.

No public members in addition to those in the JavaDoc

There should not be any public members besides those documented in the JavaDoc. Usually, there should also be no protected members not in the JavaDoc.