# Google’s coding standards for R

> 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…
> URL: https://www.smartdatacollective.com/20759/
> Last modified: 2009-08-13T18:24:00+00:00

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.)

Google Code: Google’s R Style Guide