User:Gandalfgeek/Readability

In computer programming, readability refers to the ease with which a human reader can comprehend the purpose, control flow, and operation of source code.

Readability is important because programmers spend the majority of their time reading, trying to understand, and modifying existing source code, rather than writing new source code. Unreadable code often leads to bugs, inefficiencies, and duplicated code. A study found that a few simple readability transformations made code shorter and drastically reduced the time to understand it.

Following a consistent programming style often contributes to readability. However, readability goes beyond programming style. While style prescribes syntactical guidelines, readability focusesFactors that contribute to readability include:

• Different indentation styles (whitespace)
• Comments
• Docstrings
• Naming conventions for objects (such as variables, classes, procedures, etc)