Reflect on coding standards with ESLint

ESLint is an open source JavaScript linting tool made to help JavaScript programmers write clean code that adheres to some strict coding standards. For the past week we have been using ESLint in IntelliJ to check our code for errors. This tool has been helpful in making the code we write look presentable to whoever might want to read it. Having real time error reporting With ESLint has helped me improve my code overall because I can immediately see that I have messy code by professional standards and can take action in changing my bad habits.

Example of messy code:

function numEvenNums(array){
  let i;
  let x;
  let total=0;
  for(i=0;i<array.length;i++){
    if((array[i]%2)===0){

      total++;
    }
  }

  return total;
}

As you can see, this code above is kind of hard to read because the code is so smashed together. This code example even includes a variable that has not even been used. This will all show up with ESLint as red under-lines as if you missed spelled something.

Example of cleaned code with ESLint:

function numEvenNums(array) {
  let i;
  let total = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    if ((array[i] % 2) === 0) {
      total++;
    }
  }
  return total;
}

This is the same code written with ESLint enabled. The code is much more readable, especially if the for loop area, and there are no unnecessary lines, spaces, or variables anywhere in the code. besides the lack of comments above the function, this is efficient clean code.

Conclusion:

I believe ESLint is a very effective tool for JavaScript beginners because it starts you off learning the correct way to do things by the standards of the industry professionals. The one thing I don’t like about ESLint is that the red underlines doesn’t always mean that the error will crash the program. This get annoying when you see a bunch of red lines and think you wrote something wrong. ESLint is one of the tools I plan on adding to my belt and using when working on my own JavaScript projects and I will recommend it to any new JavaScript coders I meet unless I find something I like more.