The Clojure Style Guide

Introduction

Role models are important.

— Officer Alex J. Murphy / RoboCop

Tip

You can find a beautiful version of this guide with much improved navigation at   https://guide.clojure.style.

This Clojure style guide recommends best practices so that real-world Clojure programmers can write code that can be maintained by other real-world Clojure programmers. A style guide that reflects real-world usage gets used, and a style guide that holds to an ideal that has been rejected by the people it is supposed to help risks not getting used at all — no matter how good it is.

The guide is separated into several sections of related rules. I’ve tried to add the rationale behind the rules (if it’s omitted, I’ve assumed that it’s pretty obvious).

I didn’t come up with all the rules out of nowhere; they are mostly based on my extensive career as a software engineer, my work on many Clojure open-source projects[1], feedback and suggestions from numerous members of the Clojure community, and various highly regarded Clojure programming resources, such as "Clojure Programming" and "The Joy of Clojure".

Nothing written here is set in stone. This style guide evolves over time as additional conventions are identified and past conventions are rendered obsolete by changes in Clojure itself.

Note

Clojure’s developers also maintain a list of   coding guidelines for libraries.[2] They were one of the sources of inspiration for the document, you’re currently reading.

You can generate a PDF copy of this guide using AsciiDoctor PDF, and an HTML copy with AsciiDoctor using the following commands:

# Generates README.pdf

asciidoctor-pdf -a allow-uri-read README.adoc

# Generates README.html

asciidoctor

Tip

Install the rouge gem to get nice syntax highlighting in the generated document.

gem install rouge

Guiding Principles

Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

— Harold Abelson

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

It’s common knowledge that code is read much more often than it is written. The guidelines provided here are intended to improve the readability of code and make it consistent across the wide spectrum of Clojure code. They are also meant to reflect real-world usage of Clojure instead of a random ideal. When I had to choose between a very established practice and a subjectively better alternative I’ve opted to recommend the established practice.[3]

There are some areas in which there is no clear consensus in the Clojure community regarding a particular style (like semantic indentation vs fixed indentation, semantic comments vs uniform comments, etc). In such scenarios all popular styles are acknowledged and it’s up to you to pick one and apply it consistently.

Fortunately Clojure is a Lisp, and Lisps are fundamentally simple. Even though this guide was created a few years after Clojure (I published the first version in early 2013), you could see that most Clojure code in the wild was fairly uniform. I attribute this to both the simplicity I already mentioned and to the fact that since day 1 Clojurists adopted many of the style conventions of other established Lisp dialects (e.g. Common Lisp and Scheme). This made the work on this guide fairly easy and straight-forward, especially compared to the massive exercise in frustration that was the Community Ruby Style Guide.[4]

Clojure is famously optimized for simplicity and clarity. I’d like to believe that this guide is going to help you optimize for maximum simplicity and clarity.

A Note About Consistency

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A style guide is about consistency.[5] Consistency with this style guide is important. Consistency within a project is more important. Consistency within one class or method is the most important.

However, know when to be inconsistent — sometimes style guide recommendations just aren’t applicable. When in doubt, use your best judgment. Look at other examples and decide what looks best. And don’t hesitate to ask!

In particular: do not break backwards compatibility just to comply with this guide!

Some other good reasons to ignore a particular guideline:

- When applying the guideline would make the code less readable, even for someone who is used to reading code that follows this style guide.

- To be consistent with surrounding code that also breaks it (maybe for historic reasons) — although this is also an opportunity to clean up someone else’s mess (in true XP style).

- Because the code in question predates the introduction of the guideline and there is no other reason to be modifying that code.

- When the code needs to remain compatible with older versions of Clojure that don’t support the feature recommended by the style guide.

Translations

Translations of the guide are available in the following languages:

- Chinese

- Japanese

- Korean

- Portuguese (Under progress)

- Russian

- Spanish

- Turkish

Note

These translations are not maintained by our editor team, so their quality and level of completeness may vary. The translated versions of the guide often lag behind the upstream English version.

Source Code Layout & Organization

Nearly everybody is convinced that every style but their own is ugly and unreadable. Leave out the "but their own" and they’re probably right…

— Jerry Coffin (on indentation)

Maximum Line Length

Where feasible, avoid making lines longer than 80 characters.

Why Bother with 80 characters in a World of Modern Widescreen Displays?

A lot of people these days feel that a maximum line length of 80 characters is just a remnant of the past and makes little sense today. After all - modern displays can easily fit 200+ characters on a single line. Still, there are some important benefits to be gained from sticking to shorter lines of code.

First, and foremost - numerous studies have shown that humans read much faster vertically and very long lines of text impede the reading process. As noted earlier, one of the guiding principles of this style guide is to optimize the code we write for human consumption.

Additionally, limiting the required editor window width makes it possible to have several files open side-by-side, and works well when using code review tools that present the two versions in adjacent columns.

The default wrapping in most tools disrupts the visual structure of the code, making it more difficult to understand. The limits are chosen to avoid wrapping in editors with the window width set to 80, even if the tool places a marker glyph in the final column when wrapping lines. Some web based tools may not offer dynamic line wrapping at all.

Some teams strongly prefer a longer line length. For code maintained exclusively or primarily by a team that can reach agreement on this issue, it is okay to increase the line length limit up to 100 characters, or all the way up to 120 characters. Please, restrain the urge to go beyond 120 characters.

Tabs vs Spaces

Use spaces for indentation. No hard tabs.

Body Indentation

Use 2 spaces to indent the bodies of forms that have body parameters. This covers all def forms, special forms and macros that introduce local bindings (e.g. loop, let, when-let) and many macros like when, cond, as->, cond->, case, with-*, etc.

;; good

(when something

(something-else))

(with-out-str

(println "Hello, ")

(println "world!"))

;; bad - four spaces

(when something

(something-else))

;; bad - one space

(with-out-str

(println "Hello, ")

(println "world!"))

Function Arguments Alignment

Vertically align function (macro) arguments spanning multiple lines.

;; good

(filter even?

(range 1 10))

;; bad

(filter even?

(range 1 10))

The reasoning behind this guideline is pretty simple - the arguments are easier to process by the human brain if they stand out and stick together.

Function Arguments Indentation

Note

Generally, you should stick to the formatting outlined in the previous guideline, unless you’re limited by the available horizontal space.

Use a single space indentation for function (macro) arguments when there are no arguments on the same line as the function name.

;; good

(filter

even?

(range 1 10))

(or

ala

bala

portokala)

;; bad - two-space indent

(filter

even?

(range 1 10))

(or

ala

bala

portokala)

This may appear like some weird special rule to people without Lisp background, but the reasoning behind it is quite simple. Function calls are nothing but regular list literals and normally those are aligned in the same way as other collection type literals when spanning multiple lines:

;; list literal

(1

2

3)

;; vector literal

[1

2

3]

;; set literal

#{1

2

3}

Admittedly, list literals are not very common in Clojure, that’s why it’s understandable that for many people lists are nothing but an invocation syntax.

As a side benefit, function arguments are still aligned in this scenario as well. They just happen to accidentally be aligned with the function name as well.

Semantic Indentation vs Fixed Indentation

The guidelines to indent differently macros with body forms from all other macro and function calls are collectively known as "semantic indentation". Simply put, this means that the code is indented differently, so that the indentation would give the reader of the code some hints about its meaning.

The downside of this approach is that requires Clojure code formatters to be smarter. They either need to process macro arglists and rely on the fact that people named their parameters consistently, or process some additional indentation metadata.

Some people in the Clojure community have argued that’s not worth it and that everything should simply be indented in the same fashion. Here are a few examples:

;;; Fixed Indentation

;;

;; macros

(when something

(something-else))

(with-out-str

(println "Hello, ")

(println "world!"))

;; function call spanning two lines

(filter even?

(range 1 10))

;; function call spanning three lines

(filter

even?

(range 1 10))

This suggestion has certainly gotten some ground in the community, but it also goes against the entire Lisp tradition and the primary goal of this style guide - namely to optimize code for human consumption.

There’s also one small caveat with fixed indentation that’s rarely discussed and that’s how to indent list literals, as function calls are simply list literals. As those are not very common in Clojure, outside the context of providing structure for the Clojure code itself, that matter is usually omitted from consideration:

;;; Fixed Indentation

;;

;; list literals

(1 2 3

4 5 6)

(1

2

3

4

5

6)

That looks a bit weird and happens to be inconsistent with how other collection types are normally indented.

Bindings Alignment

Vertically align let (and let-like) bindings.

;; good

(let [thing1 "some stuff"

thing2 "other stuff"]

(foo thing1 thing2))

;; bad

(let [thing1 "some stuff"

thing2 "other stuff"]

(foo thing1 thing2))

Map Keys Alignment

Align vertically map keys.

;; good

{:thing1 thing1

:thing2 thing2}

;; bad

{:thing1 thing1

:thing2 thing2}

;; bad

{:thing1 thing1

:thing2 thing2}

Line Endings

Use Unix-style line endings.[6]

Tip

If you’re using Git you might want to add the following configuration setting to protect your project from Windows line endings creeping in:

$ git config --global core.autocrlf true

Terminate Files With a Newline

End each file with a newline.

Tip

This should be done by through editor configuration, not manually.

Bracket Spacing

If any text precedes an opening bracket((, { and [) or follows a closing bracket(), } and ]), separate that text from that bracket with a space. Conversely, leave no space after an opening bracket and before following text, or after preceding text and before a closing bracket.

;; good

(foo (bar baz) quux)

;; bad

(foo(bar baz)quux)

(foo ( bar baz ) quux)

No Commas in Sequential Collection Literals

Syntactic sugar causes semicolon cancer.

— Alan Perlis

Don’t use commas between the elements of sequential collection literals.

;; good

[1 2 3]

(1 2 3)

;; bad

[1, 2, 3]

(1, 2, 3)

Optional Commas in Map Literals

Consider enhancing the readability of map literals via judicious use of commas and line breaks.

;; good

{:name "Bruce Wayne" :alter-ego "Batman"}

;; good and arguably a bit more readable

{:name "Bruce Wayne"

:alter-ego "Batman"}

;; good and arguably more compact

{:name "Bruce Wayne", :alter-ego "Batman"}

Gather Trailing Parentheses

Place all trailing parentheses on a single line instead of distinct lines.

;; good; single line

(when something

(something-else))

;; bad; distinct lines

(when something

(something-else)

)

Empty Lines Between Top-Level Forms

Use a single empty line between top-level forms.

;; good

(def x ...)

(defn foo ...)

;; bad

(def x ...)

(defn foo ...)

;; bad

(def x ...)

(defn foo ...)

An exception to the rule is the grouping of related defs together.

;; good

(def min-rows 10)

(def max-rows 20)

(def min-cols 15)

(def max-cols 30)

No Blank Lines Within Definition Forms

Do not place blank lines in the middle of a function or macro definition. An exception can be made to indicate grouping of pairwise constructs as found in e.g. let and cond, in case those don’t fit on the same line.

;; good

(defn fibo-iter

([n] (fibo-iter 0 1 n))

([curr nxt n]

(cond

(zero? n) curr

:else (recur nxt (+' curr nxt) (dec n)))))

;; okay - the line break delimits a cond pair

(defn fibo-iter

([n] (fibo-iter 0 1 n))

([curr nxt n]

(cond

(zero? n)

curr

:else

(recur nxt (+' curr nxt) (dec n)))))

;; bad

(defn fibo-iter

([n] (fibo-iter 0 1 n))

([curr nxt n]

(cond

(zero? n) curr

:else (recur nxt (+' curr nxt) (dec n)))))

Occasionally, it might seem like a good idea to add a blank line here and there in a longer function definition, but if you get to this point you should also consider whether this long function isn’t doing too much and could potentially be broken down.

No Trailing Whitespace

Avoid trailing whitespace.

One File per Namespace

Use one file per namespace and one namespace per file.

;; good

(ns foo.bar)

;; bad

(ns foo.bar)

(ns baz.qux)

;; bad

(in-ns quux.quuz)

(in-ns quuz.corge)

;; bad

(ns foo.bar) or (in-ns foo.bar) in multiple files

Namespace Declaration

No Single Segment Namespaces

Avoid single-segment namespaces.

;; good

(ns example.ns)

;; bad

(ns example)

Namespaces exist to disambiguate names. Using a single segment namespace puts you in direct conflict with everyone else using single segment namespaces, thus making it more likely you will conflict with another code base.

In practice this means that libraries should never use single-segment namespace to avoid namespace conflicts with other libraries. Within your own private app of course, you can do whatever you like.

Tip

It’s common practice to use the convention   domain.library-name or library-name.core for libraries with a single namespace in them. Read on for more coverage of the namespace naming topic.

There are other reasons why might want to avoid single-segment namespaces, so you should think long and hard before making any use of them.

Namespace Segments Limit

Avoid the use of overly long namespaces (i.e., more than 5 segments).

Comprehensive ns Form

Start every namespace with a comprehensive ns form, comprised of refers, requires, and imports, conventionally in that order.

(ns examples.ns

(:refer-clojure :exclude [next replace remove])

(:require [clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]])

(:import java.util.Date))

Line Breaks in ns

When there are multiple dependencies, you may want give each one its own line. This facilitates sorting, readability, and cleaner diffs for dependency changes.

;; better

(ns examples.ns

(:require

[clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]]

[clojure.set :as set]

[clojure.java.shell :as sh])

(:import

java.util.Date

java.text.SimpleDateFormat

[java.util.concurrent Executors

LinkedBlockingQueue]))

;; good

(ns examples.ns

(:require [clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]]

[clojure.set :as set]

[clojure.java.shell :as sh])

(:import java.util.Date

java.text.SimpleDateFormat

[java.util.concurrent Executors

LinkedBlockingQueue]))

;; bad

(ns examples.ns

(:require [clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]] [clojure.set :as set] [clojure.java.shell :as sh])

(:import java.util.Date java.text.SimpleDateFormat [java.util.concurrent Executors LinkedBlockingQueue]))

Prefer :require Over :use

In the ns form prefer :require :as over :require :refer over :require :refer :all. Prefer :require over :use; the latter form should be considered deprecated for new code.

;; good

(ns examples.ns

(:require [clojure.zip :as zip]))

;; good

(ns examples.ns

(:require [clojure.zip :refer [lefts rights]]))

;; acceptable as warranted

(ns examples.ns

(:require [clojure.zip :refer :all]))

;; bad

(ns examples.ns

(:use clojure.zip))

Sort Requirements and Imports

In the ns form, sort your requirements and imports. This facilitates readability and avoids duplication, especially when the list of required / imported namespaces is very long.

;; good

(ns examples.ns

(:require

[baz.core :as baz]

[clojure.java.shell :as sh]

[clojure.set :as set]

[clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]]

[foo.bar :as foo]))

;; bad

(ns examples.ns

(:require

[clojure.string :as s :refer [blank?]]

[clojure.set :as set]

[baz.core :as baz]

[foo.bar :as foo]

[clojure.java.shell :as sh]))

Use Idiomatic Namespace Aliases

Many core Clojure namespaces have idiomatic aliases that you’re encouraged to use within your projects - e.g. the most common way to require clojure.string is: [clojure.string :as str].

Note

This may appear to mask   clojure.core.str, but it doesn’t. It’s expected that clojure.core/str and clojure.string/* to be used in a namespace as str and str/whatever without conflict.

;; good

(ns ... (:require [clojure.string :as str] ...)

(str/join ...)

;; not as good - just be idiomatic and use as `str/`

(ns ... (:require [clojure.string :as string] ...)

(string/join ...)

Bellow are some common idiomatic aliases:

Namespace

Idiomatic Alias

clojure.java.io

io

clojure.set

set

clojure.string

str

clojure.walk

walk

clojure.zip

zip

clojure.data.xml

xml

clojure.core.async

as

clojure.core.matrix

mat

clojure.edn

edn

clojure.pprint

pp

clojure.spec.alpha

spec

clojure.data.csv

csv

cheshire.core

json

java-time

time

clj-http.client

http

clojure.tools.logging

log

hugsql.core

sql

clj-yaml.core

yaml

clojure.java.shell

sh

A Recipe for Good Namespace Aliases

Above we covered a handful of popular namespaces and their idiomatic aliases. You might have noticed that those are a bit inconsistent:

- clojure.string becomes str

- clojure.pprint becomes pp

- clojure.walk becomes walk

- clojure.spec.alpha becomes spec

I guess it’s clear that the one thing they have in common is that they aim to be concise, but still carry some meaning (aliasing clojure.walk to w would be concise, but won’t carry much meaning).

But what to do about all the other namespaces out there that don’t have idiomatic aliases? Well, you better be consistent in your approach to deriving aliases for them, otherwise the people working on a shared Clojure codebase are going to experience a great deal of confusion. Here are a few rules that you should follow.[7]

1. Make the alias the same as the namespace name with the leading parts removed.

(ns com.example.application

(:require

[clojure.java.io :as io]

[clojure.string :as string]))

1. Keep enough trailing parts to make each alias unique.

[clojure.data.xml :as data.xml]

[clojure.xml :as xml]

Tip

Yes, namespace aliases can have dots in them. Make good use of them.

1. Eliminate redundant words such as "core" and "clj" in aliases.

[clj-http :as http]

[clj-time.core :as time]

[clj-time.format :as time.format]

Use Consistent Namespace Aliases

Across a project, it’s good to be consistent with namespace aliases; e.g., don’t require clojure.string as str in one namespace but string in another. If you follow the previous two guidelines you’re basically covered, but if you opt for custom namespace aliasing scheme it’s still important to apply it consistently within your projects.

Naming

The only real difficulties in programming are cache invalidation and naming things.

— Phil Karlton

Namespace Naming Schemas

When naming namespaces favor the following two schemas:

- project.module

- organization.project.module

When you’re following the project.module naming scheme and your project has a single (implementation) namespace it’s common to name it project.core. Avoid the project.core name in all other cases, as more informative names are always a better idea.

Composite Word Namespace Segments

Use lisp-case in composite namespace segments (e.g. bruce.project-euler).

Note

Many non-Lisp programming communities refer to   lisp-case as kebab-case, but we all know that Lisp has existed way before kebab was invented.

Functions and Variables

Use lisp-case for function and variable names.

;; good

(def some-var ...)

(defn some-fun ...)

;; bad

(def someVar ...)

(defn somefun ...)

(def some_fun ...)

Protocols, Records, Structs and Types

Use CapitalCase for protocols, records, structs, and types. (Keep acronyms like HTTP, RFC, XML uppercase.)

Note

CapitalCase is also known as UpperCamelCase, `CapitalWords and PascalCase.

Predicate Methods

The names of predicate methods (methods that return a boolean value) should end in a question mark (e.g., even?).

;; good

(defn palindrome? ...)

;; bad

(defn palindrome-p ...) ; Common Lisp style

(defn is-palindrome ...) ; Java style

Unsafe Functions

The names of functions/macros that are not safe in STM transactions should end with an exclamation mark (e.g. reset!).

Conversion Functions

Use -> instead of to in the names of conversion functions.

;; good

(defn f->c ...)

;; not so good

(defn f-to-c ...)

Dynamic Vars

Use earmuffs for things intended for rebinding (ie. are dynamic).

;; good

(def ^:dynamic *a* 10)

;; bad

(def ^:dynamic a 10)

Constants

Don’t use a special notation for constants; everything is assumed a constant unless specified otherwise.

;; good

(def max-size 10)

;; bad

(def MAX-SIZE 10) ; Java style

(def +max-size+ 10) ; Common Lisp style, global constant

(def *max-size* 10) ; Common Lisp style, global variable

Note

Famously   *clojure-version* defies this convention, but you should treat this naming choice is a historical oddity and not as an example to follow.

Unused Bindings

Use _ for destructuring targets and formal argument names whose value will be ignored by the code at hand.

;; good

(let [[a b _ c] [1 2 3 4]]

(println a b c))

(dotimes [_ 3]

(println "Hello!"))

;; bad

(let [[a b c d] [1 2 3 4]]

(println a b d))

(dotimes [i 3]

(println "Hello!"))

However, when it can help the understanding of your code, it can be useful to explicitly name unused arguments or maps you’re destructuring from. In this case, prepend the name with an underscore to explicitly signal that the variable is supposed to be unused.

;; good

(defn myfun1 [context _]

(assoc context :foo "bar"))

(defn myfun2 [context {:keys [id]}]

(assoc context :user-id id))

;; better

(defn myfun1 [context _user]

(assoc context :foo "bar"))

(defn myfun2 [context {:keys [id] :as _user}]

(assoc context :user-id id))

Idiomatic Names

Follow clojure.core's example for idiomatic names like pred and coll.

- in functions:

- f, g, h - function input

- n - integer input usually a size

- index, i - integer index

- x, y - numbers

- xs - sequence

- m - map

- s - string input

- re - regular expression

- sym - symbol

- coll - a collection

- pred - a predicate closure

- & more - variadic input

- xf - xform, a transducer

- ns - namespace[8]

- in macros:

- expr - an expression

- body - a macro body

- binding - a macro binding vector

- in methods (when specified in defprotocol, deftype, defrecord, reify, etc):

- this - for the first argument, indicating a reference to the object - or alternatively, a consistent name which describes the object

Functions

Optional New Line After Function Name

Optionally omit the new line between the function name and argument vector for defn when there is no docstring.

;; good

(defn foo

[x]

(bar x))

;; good

(defn foo [x]

(bar x))

;; bad

(defn foo

[x] (bar x))

Multimethod Dispatch Val Placement

Place the dispatch-val of a multimethod on the same line as the function name.

;; good

(defmethod foo :bar [x] (baz x))

(defmethod foo :bar

[x]

(baz x))

;; bad

(defmethod foo

:bar

[x]

(baz x))

(defmethod foo

:bar [x]

(baz x))

One-line Functions

Optionally omit the new line between the argument vector and a short function body.

;; good

(defn foo [x]

(bar x))

;; good for a small function body

(defn foo [x] (bar x))

;; good for multi-arity functions

(defn foo

([x] (bar x))

([x y]

(if (predicate? x)

(bar x)

(baz x))))

;; bad

(defn foo

[x] (if (predicate? x)

(bar x)

(baz x)))

Multiple Arity Indentation

Indent each arity form of a function definition vertically aligned with its parameters.

;; good

(defn foo

"I have two arities."

([x]

(foo x 1))

([x y]

(+ x y)))

;; bad - extra indentation

(defn foo

"I have two arities."

([x]

(foo x 1))

([x y]

(+ x y)))

Multiple Arity Order

Sort the arities of a function from fewest to most arguments. The common case of multi-arity functions is that some K arguments fully specifies the function’s behavior, and that arities N < K partially apply the K arity, and arities N > K provide a fold of the K arity over varargs.

;; good - it's easy to scan for the nth arity

(defn foo

"I have two arities."

([x]

(foo x 1))

([x y]

(+ x y)))

;; okay - the other arities are applications of the two-arity

(defn foo

"I have two arities."

([x y]

(+ x y))

([x]

(foo x 1))

([x y z & more]

(reduce foo (foo x (foo y z)) more)))

;; bad - unordered for no apparent reason

(defn foo

([x] 1)

([x y z] (foo x (foo y z)))

([x y] (+ x y))

([w x y z & more] (reduce foo (foo w (foo x (foo y z))) more)))

Function Length

Avoid functions longer than 10 LOC (lines of code). Ideally, most functions will be shorter than 5 LOC.

Function Positional Parameters Limit

Avoid parameter lists with more than three or four positional parameters.

Pre and Post Conditions

Prefer function pre and post conditions to checks inside a function’s body.

;; good

(defn foo [x]

{:pre [(pos? x)]}

(bar x))

;; bad

(defn foo [x]

(if (pos? x)

(bar x)

(throw (IllegalArgumentException. "x must be a positive number!")))

Idioms

Dynamic Namespace Manipulation

Avoid the use of namespace-manipulating functions like require and refer. They are entirely unnecessary outside of a REPL environment.

Forward References

Avoid forward references. They are occasionally necessary, but such occasions are rare in practice.

Declare

Use declare to enable forward references when forward references are necessary.

Higher-order Functions

Prefer higher-order functions like map to loop/recur.

Vars Inside Functions

Don’t define vars inside functions.

;; very bad

(defn foo []

(def x 5)

...)

Shadowing clojure.core Names

Don’t shadow clojure.core names with local bindings.

;; bad - clojure.core/map must be fully qualified inside the function

(defn foo [map]

...)

Alter Var Binding

Use alter-var-root instead of def to change the value of a var.

;; good

(def thing 1) ; value of thing is now 1

; do some stuff with thing

(alter-var-root #'thing (constantly nil)) ; value of thing is now nil

;; bad

(def thing 1)

; do some stuff with thing

(def thing nil)

; value of thing is now nil

Nil Punning

Use seq as a terminating condition to test whether a sequence is empty (this technique is sometimes called nil punning).

;; good

(defn print-seq [s]

(when (seq s)

(prn (first s))

(recur (rest s))))

;; bad

(defn print-seq [s]

(when-not (empty? s)

(prn (first s))

(recur (rest s))))

Converting Sequences to Vectors

Prefer vec over into when you need to convert a sequence into a vector.

;; good

(vec some-seq)

;; bad

(into [] some-seq)

Converting Something to Boolean

Use the boolean function if you need to convert something to an actual boolean value (true or false).

;; good

(boolean (foo bar))

;; bad

(if (foo bar) true false)

Note

Don’t forget that the only values in Clojure that are "falsey" are   false and nil. Everything else will evaluate to true when passed to the boolean function.

You’ll rarely need an actual boolean value in Clojure, but it’s useful to know how to obtain one when you do.

when vs if

Use when instead of if with just the truthy branch, as in (if condition (something…)) or (if … (do …)).

;; good

(when pred

(foo)

(bar))

;; bad

(if pred

(do

(foo)

(bar)))

if-let

Use if-let instead of let + if.

;; good

(if-let [result (foo x)]

(something-with result)

(something-else))

;; bad

(let [result (foo x)]

(if result

(something-with result)

(something-else)))

when-let

Use when-let instead of let + when.

;; good

(when-let [result (foo x)]

(do-something-with result)

(do-something-more-with result))

;; bad

(let [result (foo x)]

(when result

(do-something-with result)

(do-something-more-with result)))

if-not

Use if-not instead of (if (not …) …).

;; good

(if-not pred

(foo))

;; bad

(if (not pred)

(foo))

when-not

Use when-not instead of (when (not …) …).

;; good

(when-not pred

(foo)

(bar))

;; bad

(when (not pred)

(foo)

(bar))

when-not vs if-not

Use when-not instead of (if-not … (do …)).

;; good

(when-not pred

(foo)

(bar))

;; bad

(if-not pred

(do

(foo)

(bar)))

not=

Use not= instead of (not (= …)).

;; good

(not= foo bar)

;; bad

(not (= foo bar))

printf

Prefer printf over (print (format …)).

;; good

(printf "Hello, %s!\n" name)

;; ok

(println (format "Hello, %s!" name))

Flexible Comparison Functions

When doing comparisons, leverage the fact that Clojure’s functions <, >, etc. accept a variable number of arguments.

;; good

(< 5 x 10)

;; bad

(and (> x 5) (< x 10))

Single Parameter Function Literal

Prefer % over %1 in function literals with only one parameter.

;; good

#(Math/round %)

;; bad

#(Math/round %1)

Multiple Parameters Function Literal

Prefer %1 over % in function literals with more than one parameter.

;; good

#(Math/pow %1 %2)

;; bad

#(Math/pow % %2)

No Useless Anonymous Functions

Don’t wrap functions in anonymous functions when you don’t need to.

;; good

(filter even? (range 1 10))

;; bad

(filter #(even? %) (range 1 10))

No Multiple Forms in Function Literals

Don’t use function literals if the function body will consist of more than one form.

;; good

(fn [x]

(println x)

(* x 2))

;; bad (you need an explicit do form)

#(do (println %)

(* % 2))

complement

Favor the use of complement versus the use of an anonymous function.

;; good

(filter (complement some-pred?) coll)

;; bad

(filter #(not (some-pred? %)) coll)

This rule should obviously be ignored if the complementing predicate exists in the form of a separate function (e.g. even? and odd?).

comp

Favor comp over anonymous functions for function composition.

;; Assuming `(:require [clojure.string :as str])`...

;; good

(map #(str/capitalize (str/trim %)) ["top " " test "])

;; better

(map (comp str/capitalize str/trim) ["top " " test "])

partial

Favor partial over anonymous functions.

;; good

(map #(+ 5 %) (range 1 10))

;; (arguably) better

(map (partial + 5) (range 1 10))

Threading Macros

Prefer the use of the threading macros -> (thread-first) and ->> (thread-last) to heavy form nesting.

;; good

(-> [1 2 3]

reverse

(conj 4)

prn)

;; not as good

(prn (conj (reverse [1 2 3])

4))

;; good

(->> (range 1 10)

(filter even?)

(map (partial * 2)))

;; not as good

(map (partial * 2)

(filter even? (range 1 10)))

Threading Macros and Optional Parentheses

Parentheses are not required when using the threading macros for functions having no argument specified, so use them only when necessary.

;; good

(-> x fizz :foo first frob)

;; bad; parens add clutter and are not needed

(-> x (fizz) (:foo) (first) (frob))

;; good, parens are necessary with an arg

(-> x

(fizz a b)

:foo

first

(frob x y))

Threading Macros Alignment

The arguments to the threading macros -> (thread-first) and ->> (thread-last) should line up.

;; good

(->> (range)

(filter even?)

(take 5))

;; bad

(->> (range)

(filter even?)

(take 5))

Default cond Branch

Use :else as the catch-all test expression in cond.

;; good

(cond

(neg? n) "negative"

(pos? n) "positive"

:else "zero")

;; bad

(cond

(neg? n) "negative"

(pos? n) "positive"

true "zero")

condp vs cond

Prefer condp instead of cond when the predicate & expression don’t change.

;; good

(cond

(= x 10) :ten

(= x 20) :twenty

(= x 30) :thirty

:else :dunno)

;; much better

(condp = x

10 :ten

20 :twenty

30 :thirty

:dunno)

case vs cond/condp

Prefer case instead of cond or condp when test expressions are compile-time constants.

;; good

(cond

(= x 10) :ten

(= x 20) :twenty

(= x 30) :forty

:else :dunno)

;; better

(condp = x

10 :ten

20 :twenty

30 :forty

:dunno)

;; best

(case x

10 :ten

20 :twenty

30 :forty

:dunno)

Short Forms In Cond

Use short forms in cond and related. If not possible give visual hints for the pairwise grouping with comments or empty lines.

;; good

(cond

(test1) (action1)

(test2) (action2)

:else   (default-action))

;; ok-ish

(cond

;; test case 1

(test1)

(long-function-name-which-requires-a-new-line

(complicated-sub-form

(-> 'which-spans multiple-lines)))

;; test case 2

(test2)

(another-very-long-function-name

(yet-another-sub-form

(-> 'which-spans multiple-lines)))

:else

(the-fall-through-default-case

(which-also-spans 'multiple

'lines)))

Set As Predicate

Use a set as a predicate when appropriate.

;; good

(remove #{1} [0 1 2 3 4 5])

;; bad

(remove #(= % 1) [0 1 2 3 4 5])

;; good

(count (filter #{\a \e \i \o \u} "mary had a little lamb"))

;; bad

(count (filter #(or (= % \a)

(= % \e)

(= % \i)

(= % \o)

(= % \u))

"mary had a little lamb"))

inc and dec

Use (inc x) & (dec x) instead of (+ x 1) and (- x 1).

pos? and neg?

Use (pos? x), (neg? x) & (zero? x) instead of (> x 0), (< x 0) & (= x 0).

list* vs cons

Use list* instead of a series of nested cons invocations.

;; good

(list* 1 2 3 [4 5])

;; bad

(cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 [4 5])))

Sugared Java Interop

Use the sugared Java interop forms.

;;; object creation

;; good

(java.util.ArrayList. 100)

;; bad

(new java.util.ArrayList 100)

;;; static method invocation

;; good

(Math/pow 2 10)

;; bad

(. Math pow 2 10)

;;; instance method invocation

;; good

(.substring "hello" 1 3)

;; bad

(. "hello" substring 1 3)

;;; static field access

;; good

Integer/MAX_VALUE

;; bad

(. Integer MAX_VALUE)

;;; instance field access

;; good

(.someField some-object)

;; bad

(. some-object someField)

Compact Metadata Notation For True Flags

Use the compact metadata notation for metadata that contains only slots whose keys are keywords and whose value is boolean true.

;; good

(def ^:private a 5)

;; bad

(def ^{:private true} a 5)

Private

Denote private parts of your code.

;; good

(defn- private-fun [] ...)

(def ^:private private-var ...)

;; bad

(defn private-fun [] ...) ; not private at all

(defn ^:private private-fun [] ...) ; overly verbose

(def private-var ...) ; not private at all

Access Private Var

To access a private var (e.g. for testing), use the @#'some.ns/var form.

Attach Metadata Carefully

Be careful regarding what exactly you attach metadata to.

;; we attach the metadata to the var referenced by `a`

(def ^:private a {})

(meta a) ;=> nil

(meta #'a) ;=> {:private true}

;; we attach the metadata to the empty hash-map value

(def a ^:private {})

(meta a) ;=> {:private true}

(meta #'a) ;=> nil

Data Structures

It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.

— Alan J. Perlis

Avoid Lists

Avoid the use of lists for generic data storage (unless a list is exactly what you need).

Keywords For Hash Keys

Prefer the use of keywords for hash keys.

;; good

{:name "Bruce" :age 30}

;; bad

{"name" "Bruce" "age" 30}

Literal Collection Syntax

Prefer the use of the literal collection syntax where applicable. However, when defining sets, only use literal syntax when the values are compile-time constants.

;; good

[1 2 3]

#{1 2 3}

(hash-set (func1) (func2)) ; values determined at runtime

;; bad

(vector 1 2 3)

(hash-set 1 2 3)

#{(func1) (func2)} ; will throw runtime exception if (func1) = (func2)

Avoid Index Based Collection Access

Avoid accessing collection members by index whenever possible.

Keywords as Functions for Map Values Retrieval

Prefer the use of keywords as functions for retrieving values from maps, where applicable.

(def m {:name "Bruce" :age 30})

;; good

(:name m)

;; more verbose than necessary

(get m :name)

;; bad - susceptible to NullPointerException

(m :name)

Collections as Functions

Leverage the fact that most collections are functions of their elements.

;; good

(filter #{\a \e \o \i \u} "this is a test")

;; bad - too ugly to share

Keywords as Functions

Leverage the fact that keywords can be used as functions of a collection.

((juxt :a :b) {:a "ala" :b "bala"})

Avoid Transient Collections

Avoid the use of transient collections, except for performance-critical portions of the code.

Avoid Java Collections

Avoid the use of Java collections.

Avoid Java Arrays

Avoid the use of Java arrays, except for interop scenarios and performance-critical code dealing heavily with primitive types.

Types & Records

Record Constructors

Don’t use the interop syntax to construct type and record instances. deftype and defrecord automatically create constructor functions. Use those instead of the interop syntax, as they make it clear that you’re dealing with a deftype or a defrecord. See this article for more details.

(defrecord Foo [a b])

(deftype Bar [a b])

;; good

(->Foo 1 2)

(map->Foo {:b 4 :a 3})

(->Bar 1 2)

;; bad

(Foo. 1 2)

(Bar. 1 2)

Note that deftype doesn’t define the map->Type constructor. It’s available only for records.

Custom Record Constructors

Add custom type/record constructors when needed (e.g. to validate properties on record creation). See this article for more details.

(defrecord Customer [id name phone email])

(defn make-customer

"Creates a new customer record."

[{:keys [name phone email]}]

{:pre [(string? name)

(valid-phone? phone)

(valid-email? email)]}

(->Customer (next-id) name phone email))

Feel free to adopt whatever naming convention or structure you’d like for such custom constructors.

Custom Record Constructors Naming

Don’t override the auto-generated type/record constructor functions. People expect them to have a certain behaviour and changing this behaviour violates the principle of least surprise. See this article for more details.

(defrecord Foo [num])

;; good

(defn make-foo

[num]

{:pre [(pos? num)]}

(->Foo num))

;; bad

(defn ->Foo

[num]

{:pre [(pos? num)]}

(Foo. num))

Mutation

Refs

io! Macro

Consider wrapping all I/O calls with the io! macro to avoid nasty surprises if you accidentally end up calling such code in a transaction.

Avoid ref-set

Avoid the use of ref-set whenever possible.

(def r (ref 0))

;; good

(dosync (alter r + 5))

;; bad

(dosync (ref-set r 5))

Small Transactions

Try to keep the size of transactions (the amount of work encapsulated in them) as small as possible.

Avoid Short Long Transactions With Same Ref

Avoid having both short- and long-running transactions interacting with the same Ref.

Agents

Agents Send

Use send only for actions that are CPU bound and don’t block on I/O or other threads.

Agents Send Off

Use send-off for actions that might block, sleep, or otherwise tie up the thread.

Atoms

No Updates Within Transactions

Avoid atom updates inside STM transactions.

Prefer swap! over reset!

Try to use swap! rather than reset!, where possible.

(def a (atom 0))

;; good

(swap! a + 5)

;; not as good

(reset! a 5)

Strings

Prefer clojure.string Functions Over Interop

Prefer string manipulation functions from clojure.string over Java interop or rolling your own.

;; good

(clojure.string/upper-case "bruce")

;; bad

(.toUpperCase "bruce")

Note

Several new functions were added to   clojure.string in Clojure 1.8 (index-of, last-index-of, starts-with?, ends-with? and includes?). You should avoid using those if you need to support older Clojure releases.

Exceptions

Reuse Existing Exception Types

Reuse existing exception types. Idiomatic Clojure code — when it does throw an exception — throws an exception of a standard type (e.g. java.lang.IllegalArgumentException, java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException, java.lang.IllegalStateException, java.io.IOException).

Prefer with-open Over finally

Favor with-open over finally.

Macros

Don’t Write a Macro If a Function Will Do

Don’t write a macro if a function will do.

Write Macro Usage before Writing the Macro

Create an example of a macro usage first and the macro afterwards.

Break Complicated Macros

Break complicated macros into smaller functions whenever possible.

Macros as Syntactic Sugar

A macro should usually just provide syntactic sugar and the core of the macro should be a plain function. Doing so will improve composability.

Syntax Quoted Forms

Prefer syntax-quoted forms over building lists manually.

Common Metadata

In this section we’ll go over some common metadata for namespaces and vars that Clojure development tools can leverage.

:added

The most common way to document when a public API was added to a library is via the :added metadata.

(def ^{:added "0.5"} foo

42)

(ns foo.bar

"A very useful ns."

{:added "0.8"})

(defn ^{:added "0.5"} foo

(bar))

Tip

If you’re into SemVer, it’s a good idea to omit the patch version. This means you should use   0.5 instead of 0.5.0. This applies for all metadata data that’s version related.

:changed

The most common way to document when a public API was changed in a library is via the :changed metadata. This metadata makes sense only for vars and you should be using it sparingly, as changing the behavior of a public API is generally a bad idea.

Still, if you decide to do it, it’s best to make that clear to the API users.

(def ^{:added "0.5"

:changed "0.6"} foo

43)

:deprecated

The most common way to mark deprecated public APIs is via the :deprecated metadata. Normally you’d use as the value the version in which something was deprecated in case of versioned software (e.g. a library) or simply true in the case of unversioned software (e.g. some web application).

;;; good

;;

;; in case we have a version

(def ^{:deprecated "0.5"} foo

"Use `bar` instead."

42)

(ns foo.bar

"A deprecated ns."

{:deprecated "0.8"})

(defn ^{:deprecated "0.5"} foo

(bar))

;; otherwise

(defn ^:deprecated foo

(bar))

;;; bad

;;

;; using the docstring to signal deprecation

(def foo

"DEPRECATED: Use `bar` instead."

42)

(ns foo.bar

"DEPRECATED: A deprecated ns.")

:superseded-by

Often you’d combine :deprecated with :superseded-by, as there would be some newer API that supersedes whatever got deprecated.

Typically for vars you’ll use a non-qualified name if the replacement lives in the same namespace, and a fully-qualified name otherwise.

;; in case we have a version

(def ^{:deprecated "0.5"

:superseded-by "bar"} foo

"Use `bar` instead."

42)

(ns foo.bar

"A deprecated ns."

{:deprecated "0.8"

:superseded-by "foo.baz"})

(defn ^{:deprecated "0.5"

:superseded-by "bar"} foo

(bar))

;; otherwise

(defn ^{:deprecated true

:superseded-by "bar"} foo

(bar))

Tip

You can also consider adding   :supersedes metadata to the newer APIs, basically the inverse of :superseded-by.

:see-also

From time to time you might want to point out some related vars/namespaces that the users of your library might be interested in. The most common way to do so would be via the :see-also metadata, which takes a vector of related items. When talking about vars - items in the same namespace don’t need to fully qualified.

;; refers to vars in the same ns

(def ^{:see-also ["bar" "baz"]} foo

"A very useful var."

42)

;; refers to vars in some other ns

(defn ^{:see-also ["top.bar" "top.baz"]} foo

(bar))

Note

Many Clojure programming tools will also try to extract references to other vars from the docstring, but it’s both simpler and more explicit to use the   :see-also metadata instead.

:no-doc

Documentation tools like Codox like cljdoc recognize :no-doc metadata. When a var or a namespace has :no-doc metadata, it indicates to these tools that it should be excluded from generated API docs.

To exclude an entire namespace from API docs:

(ns ^:no-doc my-library.impl

"Internal implementation details")

...

To exclude vars within a documented namespace:

(ns my-library.api)

;; private functions do not get documented

(defn- clearly-private []

...)

;; nor do public functions with :no-doc metadata

(defn ^:no-doc shared-helper []

...)

;; this function will be documented

(defn api-fn1

"I am useful to the public"

[]

...)

Indentation Metadata

Unlike other Lisp dialects, Clojure doesn’t have a standard metadata format to specify the indentation of macros. CIDER proposed a tool-agnostic indentation specification based on metadata in 2015.[9] Here’s a simple example:

;; refers to vars in the same ns

(defmacro with-in-str

"[DOCSTRING]"

{:style/indent 1}

[s & body]

...cut for brevity...)

This instructs the indentation engine that this is a macro with one ordinary parameter and a body after it.

;; without metadata (indented as a regular function)

(dop-iin-str some-string

foo

bar

baz)

;; with metadata (indented as macro with one special param and a body)

(with-in-str some-string

foo

bar

baz)

Unfortunately, as of 2020 there’s still no widespread adoption of :style/indent and many editors and IDEs would just hardcode the indentation rules for common macros.

Note

This approach to indentation ("semantic indentation") is a contested topic in the Clojure community, due to the need for the additional metadata and tooling support. Despite the long tradition of that approach in the Lisp community in general, some people argue to just stop treating functions and macros differently and simply indent everything with a fixed indentation.   This article is one popular presentation of that alternative approach.

Comments

Good code is its own best documentation. As you’re about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code so that this comment isn’t needed?" Improve the code and then document it to make it even clearer.

— Steve McConnell

Self-Explanatory Code

Endeavor to make your code as self-explanatory as possible. If you fail to achieve this follow the rest of the guidelines in this section.

Heading Comments

Write heading comments with at least four semicolons. Those typically serve to outline/separate major section of code, or to describe important ideas. Often you’d have a section comment followed by a bunch of top-level comments.

;;;; Section Comment/Heading

;;; Foo...

;;; Bar...

;;; Baz...

Top-Level Comments

Write top-level comments with three semicolons.

;;; I'm a top-level comment.

;;; I live outside any definition.

(defn foo [])

Note

While the classic Lisp tradition dictates the use of   ;;; for top-level comments, you’ll find plenty of Clojure code in the wild that’s using ;; or even ;.

Code Fragment (Line) Comments

Write comments on a particular fragment of code before that fragment and aligned with it, using two semicolons.

(defn foo [x]

;; I'm a line/code fragment comment.

x)

Note

While the classic Lisp tradition dictates the use of   ;; for line comments, you’ll find plenty of Clojure code in the wild that’s using only ;.

Margin (Inline) Comments

Write margin comments with one semicolon.

(defn foo [x]

x ; I'm a line/code fragment comment.

)

Avoid using those in situations that would result in hanging closing parentheses.

Semicolon Space

Always have at least one space between the semicolon and the text that follows it.

;;;; Frob Grovel

;;; This section of code has some important implications:

;;;   1. Foo.

;;;   2. Bar.

;;;   3. Baz.

(defn fnord [zarquon]

;; If zob, then veeblefitz.

(quux zot

mumble             ; Zibblefrotz.

frotz))

English Syntax

Comments longer than a word begin with a capital letter and use punctuation. Separate sentences with one space.

;; This is a good comment.

;; this is a bad comment

Obviously punctuation is not the most important thing about a comment, but a bit of extra effort results in better experience for the readers of our comments.

No Superfluous Comments

Avoid superfluous comments.

;; bad

(inc counter) ; increments counter by one

Comment Upkeep

Keep existing comments up-to-date. An outdated comment is worse than no comment at all.

#_ Reader Macro

Prefer the use of the #_ reader macro over a regular comment when you need to comment out a particular form.

;; good

(+ foo #_(bar x) delta)

;; bad

(+ foo

;; (bar x)

delta)

Refactor, Don’t Comment

Good code is like a good joke - it needs no explanation.

— Russ Olsen

Avoid writing comments to explain bad code. Refactor the code to make it self-explanatory. ("Do, or do not. There is no try." --Yoda)

Comment Annotations

Annotate Above

Annotations should usually be written on the line immediately above the relevant code.

;; good

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME: Replace baz with the newer bar.

(baz))

;; bad

;; FIXME: Replace baz with the newer bar.

(defn some-fun

[]

(baz))

Annotate Keywords

The annotation keyword is followed by a colon and a space, then a note describing the problem.

;; good

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME: Replace baz with the newer bar.

(baz))

;; bad - no colon after annotation

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME Replace baz with the newer bar.

(baz))

;; bad - no space after colon

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME:Replace baz with the newer bar.

(baz))

Indent Annotations

If multiple lines are required to describe the problem, subsequent lines should be indented as much as the first one.

;; good

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME: This has crashed occasionally since v1.2.3. It may

;;        be related to the BarBazUtil upgrade. (xz 13-1-31)

(baz))

;; bad

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME: This has crashed occasionally since v1.2.3. It may

;; be related to the BarBazUtil upgrade. (xz 13-1-31)

(baz))

Sign and Date Annotations

Tag the annotation with your initials and a date so its relevance can be easily verified.

(defn some-fun

[]

;; FIXME: This has crashed occasionally since v1.2.3. It may

;;        be related to the BarBazUtil upgrade. (xz 13-1-31)

(baz))

Rare Margin (EOL) Annotations

In cases where the problem is so obvious that any documentation would be redundant, annotations may be left at the end of the offending line with no note. This usage should be the exception and not the rule.

(defn bar

[]

(sleep 100)) ; OPTIMIZE

TODO

Use TODO to note missing features or functionality that should be added at a later date.

FIXME

Use FIXME to note broken code that needs to be fixed.

OPTIMIZE

Use OPTIMIZE to note slow or inefficient code that may cause performance problems.

HACK

Use HACK to note "code smells" where questionable coding practices were used and should be refactored away.

REVIEW

Use REVIEW to note anything that should be looked at to confirm it is working as intended. For example: REVIEW: Are we sure this is how the client does X currently?

Document Custom Annotations

Use other custom annotation keywords if it feels appropriate, but be sure to document them in your project’s README or similar.

Documentation

Docstrings are the primary way to document Clojure code. Many definition forms (e.g. def, defn, defmacro, ns) support docstrings and usually it’s a good idea to make good use of them, regardless of whether the var in question is something public or private.

If a definition form doesn’t support docstrings directly you can still supply them via the :doc metadata attribute.

This section outlines some of the common conventions and best practices for documenting Clojure code.

Prefer Docstrings

If a form supports docstrings directly prefer them over using :doc metadata:

;; good

(defn foo

"This function doesn't do much."

[]

...)

(ns foo.bar.core

"That's an awesome library.")

;; bad

(defn foo

^{:doc "This function doesn't do much."}

[]

...)

(ns ^{:doc "That's an awesome library.")

foo.bar.core)

Docstring Summary

Let the first line in the docstring be a complete, capitalized sentence which concisely describes the var in question. This makes it easy for tooling (Clojure editors and IDEs) to display a short a summary of the docstring at various places.

;; good

(defn frobnitz

"This function does a frobnitz.

It will do gnorwatz to achieve this, but only under certain

circumstances."

[]

...)

;; bad

(defn frobnitz

"This function does a frobnitz. It will do gnorwatz to

achieve this, but only under certain circumstances."

[]

...)

Leverage Markdown in Docstrings

Important tools such as cljdoc support Markdown in docstrings so leverage it for nicely formatted documentation.

;; good

(defn qzuf-number

"Computes the [Qzuf number](https://wikipedia.org/qzuf) of the `coll`.

Supported options in `opts`:

| key           | description |

| --------------|-------------|

| `:finite-uni?`| Assume finite universe; default: `false`

| `:complex?`   | If OK to return a [complex number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number); default: `false`

| `:timeout`    | Throw an exception if the computation doesn't finish within `:timeout` milliseconds; default: `nil`

Example:

```clojure

(when (neg? (qzuf-number [1 2 3] {:finite-uni? true}))

(throw (RuntimeException. \"Error in the Universe!\")))

```"

[coll opts]

...)

Document Positional Arguments

Document all positional arguments, and wrap them them with backticks (`) so that editors and IDEs can identify them and potentially provide extra functionality for them.

;; good

(defn watsitz

"Watsitz takes a `frob` and converts it to a znoot.

When the `frob` is negative, the znoot becomes angry."

[frob]

...)

;; bad

(defn watsitz

"Watsitz takes a frob and converts it to a znoot.

When the frob is negative, the znoot becomes angry."

[frob]

...)

Document References

Wrap any var references in the docstring with ` so that tooling can identify them. Wrap them with [[..]] if you want to link to them.

;; good

(defn wombat

"Acts much like `clojure.core/identity` except when it doesn't.

Takes `x` as an argument and returns that. If it feels like it.

See also [[kangaroo]]."

[x]

...)

;; bad

(defn wombat

"Acts much like clojure.core/identity except when it doesn't.

Takes `x` as an argument and returns that. If it feels like it.

See also kangaroo."

[x]

...)

Docstring Grammar

Docstrings should be composed of well-formed English sentences. Every sentence should start with a capitalized word, be gramatically coherent, and end with appropriate punctuation. Sentences should be separated with a single space.

;; good

(def foo

"All sentences should end with a period (or maybe an exclamation mark).

The sentence should be followed by a space, unless it concludes the docstring.")

;; bad

(def foo

"all sentences should end with a period (or maybe an exclamation mark).

The sentence should be followed by a space, unless it concludes the docstring.")

Docstring Indentation

Indent multi-line docstrings by two spaces.

;; good

(ns my.ns

"It is actually possible to document a ns.

It's a nice place to describe the purpose of the namespace and maybe even

the overall conventions used. Note how _not_ indenting the docstring makes

it easier for tooling to display it correctly.")

;; bad

(ns my.ns

"It is actually possible to document a ns.

It's a nice place to describe the purpose of the namespace and maybe even

the overall conventions used. Note how _not_ indenting the docstring makes

it easier for tooling to display it correctly.")

Docstring Leading Trailing Whitespace

Neither start nor end your docstrings with any whitespace.

;; good

(def foo

"I'm so awesome."

42)

;; bad

(def silly

"    It's just silly to start a docstring with spaces.

Just as silly as it is to end it with a bunch of them.      "

42)

Place Docstring After Function Name

When adding a docstring — especially to a function using the above form — take care to correctly place the docstring after the function name, not after the argument vector. The latter is not invalid syntax and won’t cause an error, but includes the string as a form in the function body without attaching it to the var as documentation.

;; good

(defn foo

"docstring"

[x]

(bar x))

;; bad

(defn foo [x]

"docstring"

(bar x))

Note

Place docstrings for defprotocol methods after the argument vector:

(defprotocol MyProtocol

"MyProtocol docstring"

(foo [this x y z]

"foo docstring")

(bar [this]

"bar docstring"))

Testing

Test Directory Structure

Store your tests in a separate directory, typically test/yourproject/ (as opposed to src/yourproject/). Your build tool is responsible for making them available in the contexts where they are necessary; most templates will do this for you automatically.

Test Namespace Naming

Name your ns yourproject.something-test, a file which usually lives in test/yourproject/something_test.clj (or .cljc, cljs).

Test Naming

When using clojure.test, define your tests with deftest and name them something-test.

;; good

(deftest something-test ...)

;; bad

(deftest something-tests ...)

(deftest test-something ...)

(deftest something ...)

Library Organization

Library Coordinates

If you are publishing libraries to be used by others, make sure to follow the Central Repository guidelines for choosing your groupId and artifactId. This helps to prevent name conflicts and facilitates the widest possible use. A good example is Component - its coordinates are com.stuartsierra/component.

Another approach that’s popular in the wild is to use a project (or organization) name as the groupId instead of domain name. Examples of such naming would be:

- cider/cider-nrepl

- nrepl/nrepl

- nrepl/drawbridge

- clj-commons/fs

Minimize Dependencies

Avoid unnecessary dependencies. For example, a three-line utility function copied into a project is usually better than a dependency that drags in hundreds of vars you do not plan to use.

Tool-agnostic

Deliver core functionality and integration points in separate artifacts. That way, consumers can consume your library without being constrained by your unrelated tooling preferences. For example, Component provides core functionality, and reloaded provides leiningen integration.

Existential

Be Functional

Code in a functional way, using mutation only when it makes sense.

Be Consistent

Be consistent. In an ideal world, be consistent with these guidelines.

Common Sense

Use common sense.

Tools

One problem with style guides is that it’s often hard to remember all the guidelines and to apply them consistently. We’re only humans, after all. Fortunately, there are a bunch of tools that can do most of the work for us.

Tip

It’s a great idea run such tools as part of your continuous integration (CI). This ensure that all the code in one project is consistent with the style you’re aiming for.

Lint Tools

There are some lint tools created by the Clojure community that might aid you in your endeavor to write idiomatic Clojure code.

- kibit is a static code analyzer for Clojure which uses core.logic to search for patterns of code for which there might exist a more idiomatic function or macro.

- clj-kondo is a linter that detects a wide number of discouraged patterns and suggests improvements, based on this style guide.

Code Formatters

While most Clojure editors and IDEs can format the code, according to the layout guidelines outlined here, it’s always handy to have some command-line code formatting tools. There are a couple of options for Clojure that do a great job when it comes to formatting the code as suggested in this guide:

- cljfmt

- zprint (the documentation for configuring it to use the community formatting rules is here)

Note

When it comes to editors - Emacs’s   clojure-mode by default will format the code exactly as outlined in the guide. Other editors might require some configuration tweaking to produce the same results.

History

This guide was started in 2013 by Bozhidar Batsov, following the success of a similar project he had created in the Ruby community.

Bozhidar was very passionate about both Clojure and good programming style and he wanted to bridge the between what was covered by the Clojure library coding guidelines and what the style guides for languages like Java, Python and Ruby would typically cover. Bozhidar still serves as the guide’s primary editor, but there’s an entire editor team supporting the project.

Since the inception of the guide we’ve received a lot of feedback from members of the exceptional Clojure community around the world. Thanks for all the suggestions and the support! Together we can make a resource beneficial to each and every Clojure developer out there.

Sources of Inspiration

Many people, books, presentations, articles and other style guides influenced the community Clojure style guide. Here are some of them:

- "The Elements of Style"

- "The Elements of Programming Style"

- Python Style Guide (PEP-8)

- Community Ruby Style Guide

- Google’s Common Lisp Style Guide

- scheme-style

- Clojure Library Coding Guidelines

- "Clojure Programming"

- "The Joy of Clojure"

- "Elements of Clojure"

- "Clojure Applied"

- Stuart Sierra’s "Clojure Dos and Don’t" blog series

Editor Team

The Clojure style guide is stewarded by an editor team of experienced Clojurists that aims to reduce all the input we get (e.g. feedback and suggestions) to a better reference for everyone.

- Bozhidar Batsov

- Alex Miller

- Daniel Compton

- Sean Corfield

Contributing

The guide is still a work in progress - some guidelines are lacking examples, some guidelines don’t have examples that illustrate them clearly enough. Improving such guidelines is a great (and simple way) to help the Clojure community!

In due time these issues will (hopefully) be addressed - just keep them in mind for now.

Nothing written in this guide is set in stone. It’s my desire to work together with everyone interested in Clojure coding style, so that we could ultimately create a resource that will be beneficial to the entire Clojure community.

Feel free to open tickets or send pull requests with improvements. Thanks in advance for your help!

You can also support the style guide (and all my Clojure projects like CIDER, nREPL, orchard, etc) with financial contributions via one of the following platforms:

- GitHub Sponsors

- ko-fi

- Patreon

- PayPal

How to Contribute?

It’s easy, just follow the contribution guidelines below:

- Fork bbatsov/clojure-style-guide on GitHub

- Make your feature addition or bug fix in a feature branch.

- Include a good description of your changes

- Push your feature branch to GitHub

- Send a Pull Request

Colophon

This guide is written in AsciiDoc and is published as HTML using AsciiDoctor. The HTML version of the guide is hosted on GitHub Pages.

Originally the guide was written in Markdown, but was converted to AsciiDoc in 2019.

License

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Spread the Word

A community-driven style guide is of little use to a community that doesn’t know about its existence. Tweet about the guide, share it with your friends and colleagues. Every comment, suggestion or opinion we get makes the guide just a little bit better. And we want to have the best possible guide, don’t we?

1. CIDER, nREPL, Orchard, etc.

2. Those guidelines are meant to be applied to Clojure itself and to all the Clojure Contrib libraries.

3. Occasionally I might suggest to the reader to consider some alternatives, though.

4. You’ll notice that the Clojure style guide is pretty similar in structure to the Ruby style guide, which served as its main source of inspiration. You’ll also notice that the Ruby style guide is much longer, mostly because of the complexity of the Ruby language.

5. This section is heavily inspired by Python’s PEP-8

6. *BSD/Solaris/Linux/macOS users are covered by default, Windows users have to be extra careful.

7. These guidelines are based on a blog post by Stuart Sierra.

8. Technically this will shadow the ns macro, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll ever need it in the body of a function.

9. This was first introduced in CIDER 0.10