Always start a new line after an opening curly bracket. A closing curly bracket should always belong on a separate line, except for else statements. Put one blank line between each method.

In Java, brackets are used for the following purposes: Round brackets () Arguments of methods are placed between round brackets. Furthermore, round brackets are used in mathematical formulas to specify priorities of operations, and in control structures such as for-loops and if-clauses.

In a Java program, everything is subordinate to the top line — the line with class in it. To indicate that everything else in the code is subordinate to this class line, you use curly braces. Everything else in the code goes inside these curly braces.

Java convention: An open curly brace should be located at the beginning of a line.

For methods, the opening curly brace is on a separate line. But for other blocks (such as the “if” statement), the curly brace is on the same line.

Allman style This style puts the brace associated with a control statement on the next line, indented to the same level as the control statement. Statements within the braces are indented to the next level. The blocking style also delineates the block of code from the associated control statement.

Braces are used to group the statements in an if statement, a loop, or other control structures. Brackets are used to index into an array. Parentheses are used for two purposes: (1) to control the order of operations in an expression, and (2) to supply parameters to a constructor or method.

Java relies on commenting conventions similar to those in C++. A comment that is confined to a single line begins with the character sequence // and ends at the end of the line. Longer comments must be enclosed between the opening “bracket” /* and “closing” bracket star/. Examples of both form of comments appear in Section 1.5 .

Java has a “feature” which allows you to omit curly brackets when writing if statements, for loops, or while loops containing only a single statement. You should never use this feature – always include curly brackets. if ( something) System. out. println ( “Look, no curly brackets!”);

Formatting Conventions Indent nested code Nested code improves readability. Every time that you open a bracket you should indent the code written after it. The indentation should continue until the bracket is closed.

Braces are used around all statements, even single statements, when they are part of a control structure, such as an if-else or for statement. This makes it easier to add statements without accidentally introducing bugs due to forgetting to add braces.