PEP8 - the fashion ๐Ÿ’ƒ police of Python

January 18, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

Well basically PEP8 is a style guide which provides guidelines and best practices for writing python code.

How I learn?

Well bascially the official Python docs for PEP8 seems good but I use pep8.org. It provides much more cleaner interface.

Summary

Below is a summary which includes some go-to rules you can memorize.

  1. Use 4 spaces per indentation level.
  2. Spaces are preferred instead of tabs (Why ?? :disappointed_relieved:) Python disallows mixing of Tabs & Spaces (Syntax Errors). So be consistent with what you choose, I prefer tabs :wink:
  3. Limit all lines to a maximum of 79 characters. Use \ to break/continue line.
  4. Never use the characters โ€˜lโ€™ (lowercase letter el), โ€˜Oโ€™ (uppercase letter oh), or โ€˜Iโ€™ (uppercase letter eye) as single character variable names. These are misunderstood with numerals one and zero in some font styles.
  5. Function Names - lowercase words separated by _ .
  6. Class Names - Start each word with a capital letter. Use CamelCase E.g StudentClass

Tools

If use Sublime Text, you can install Python PEP8 Autoformat - it does the job for you.