Code Complete, 2nd Edition

Statements Whose Order Doesn't Matter

You might encounter cases in which it seems as if the order of a few statements or a few blocks of code doesn't matter at all. One statement doesn't depend on, or logically follow, another statement. But ordering affects readability, performance, and maintainability, and in the absence of execution-order dependencies, you can use secondary criteria to determine the order of statements or blocks of code. The guiding principle is the Principle of Proximity: Keep related actions together.

Making Code Read from Top to Bottom

As a general principle, make the program read from top to bottom rather than jumping around. Experts agree that top-to-bottom order contributes most to readability. Simply making the control ...