⚡️ 0.3 seconds to make your code clean!

👋 Hi there!

As a software engineer and educator, I spend a lot of time watching beginners write code.

And one thing always stands out: how slow it can be.
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Not because of logic or bugs, but because of typing & formatting!

So today I suggest we talk about formatters.
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Before we start, can you answer this tiny poll?
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You already use a formatter when you code: TRUE FALSE

If you're not using one yet, it’s an easy win that will instantly boost your productivity.

And if you already are, read on: there's some exciting news you’ll want to know.

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The problem

Without a formatter, two things usually happen:

First code is often hard to read. Take this R code snippet: it works, but it’s a headache to read:

Indentation is bad, spacings don't make sense, case is terrible and lines are too long.
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People usually realise this which leads to the second problem: wasting time manually cleaning it up.

Fiddling with spaces, adding line breaks, fixing tabs...
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You eventually get something cleaner, but at the cost of precious minutes. And probably not with a perfect result!

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The solution: formatters

No matter if you code in R, Python, or JavaScript, you should absolutely be using a formatter.

A formatter is a little tool that handles the layout of your code: line breaks, indentation, spacing. It takes a set of standard styling rules and apply them automatically on your file.

It doesn’t change what your code does, just how it looks.
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Hit a keyboard shortcut or click a button and boom: clean, readable code in an instant. 🔥

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Format on save

The best way to use a formatter is to set it to run every time you hit ctrl+s to save your file. We call this feature "format on save".

In R, the styler package has long been the go-to formatter, following the tidyverse style guide.

It works well, and I explain how to use it in my Productive R Workflow course.
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But styler is a bit slow and the Format On Save feature was not well supported.

There’s a new tool that has just been released that fix those issues. It's called Air.

It’s blazingly fast. Formatting the entire dplyr codebase takes just 0.3 seconds! 😳
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​Note: you know how much I love Quarto. Air does not work with Quarto documents in R Studio. But it does work if you use Positron or VS code.

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Javascript and Python

The same principle applies to Python and JavaScript too!
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With Javascript, Prettier is usually the go-to formatter.
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In Python, Black was one of the standard for a long time, but Ruff is definitely the way to go now, as it is much faster!
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Conclusion

Using the right tools is one of the best investments you can make in your developer journey.
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The seconds you waste on formatting manually every day add up quickly. 📈Minutes per day, days per year.
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​Don’t let that time go to waste.🚨

Make the switch. There is no coming back!

Cheers,

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Yan

PS: I'm updating my Productive R Workflow project to replace styler with Air in the coming days! If you like using R properly, take a look! It gives heaps of tips like this one!
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​PPS: The students of Matplotlib Journey keep doing amazing work 😀. Would you know how to do that with matplotlib? (code here)