Code Review
Code Review
The practice of having another developer examine written code to identify errors and areas for improvement.
In Simple Terms
Code review is the practice of having other developers read through the code you've written to check for errors. In team development, it's commonly done before merging new code into the main codebase. Through this process, mistakes you might have missed on your own get caught, and more efficient approaches get shared across the team. It's a standard procedure adopted by many teams to maintain consistent quality regardless of who wrote the code.
Behind the Name
Code Review combines two familiar words: "Code" (short for source code — the instructions written in a programming language) and "Review" (to re-examine or critically evaluate something). Writing code alone makes it easy to miss mistakes or overlook better approaches, so having teammates check your work is a proven way to raise overall quality.
Take a Closer Look!
Code review is the process of having other developers examine your source code to check for errors and areas for improvement.
Code is intricate and complex, so even experienced developers can make typos or logical mistakes.
Having a fresh set of eyes look it over helps catch bugs early and keeps the codebase clean and well-organized.
Beyond improving code quality, code review serves an important role in knowledge sharing.
It's a way for developers to learn how others approach problems and to reinforce the team's shared coding standards.
Put simply, it's the habit of watching over the code together rather than working in isolation.
While teams once printed code on paper and gathered in a meeting room to review it, today it's standard practice to conduct reviews online using dedicated tools.
By exchanging feedback through these tools, the whole team works together to build a better system.