Javascript

Basic Javascript

Formatting

Spacing

It’s a good idea from a readability standpoint to give your code room to breath. This means spacing around comparison operators as well as before and after braces:

// Bad
if(foo==="bar"){
 doBaz();
}

// Good
if(foo === "bar") {
 doBaz();
}

Braces

Please do not put braces on their own lines:

// Bad
if(foo)
{
    bar();
}

// Good
if(foo) {
    bar();
}

jQuery

jQuery Variables

Anytime you place a jQuery object into a variable, prepend the variable with “$”. This is an accepted jQuery convention that lets us know we’re dealing with a jQuery object and not a native object.

var foo = document.getElementById("foo"); // native object
var $foo = $("foo"); // jQuery object

Cache Whenever Possible

If there’s the possibility you’ll need dom element or it’s children more than once, be sure to cache it to a variable to prevent querying the dom multiple times.

var $something = $('#something');
$something.bind("click", doStuff);
$something.children("li").fadeOut();