Introduction

Author

Government Analysis Function and ONS Data Science Campus

1 Introduction

You don’t write code once and forget about it. It is written and then modified over time to keep it up to date and efficient as it pertains to the project. Maintaining a long-living software system is substantially related to the quality of the code. Every year, a large amount of time and significant resources are lost due to poorly written code. Writing clean code is a key skill all who use programming should have.

In this course, you will understand what clean code is and how to make our code clean code.

1.1 Learning Outcomes

After completing this course you should:

  • understand what clean code is

  • understand the importance of writing clean code

  • be familiar with some principles of clean code

1.2 Prerequisite Knowledge

Basic programming knowledge in Python or R is required.

1.3 Course Format

This course is written in both the Python and the R programming language. Where code is provided it will be presented in tabs; one for Python and one for R. Please choose the tab with the language you wish to use. An example is below.

1.4 Code Examples

print("This tab contains Python code")
print("This tab contains R code")

1.5 Duration

This course will take approximately 1 hour to complete.

Reuse

Open Government Licence 3.0