Indentation is the leading whitespace at the beginning of a line of code that indicates the hierarchical structure and scope of the program. It's a visual cue that helps developers quickly understand the flow and organization of the code, although some developers argue that it's just a waste of precious horizontal screen real estate.

How to use it in a sentence

• "I spent all day debugging my Python script only to realize I had a single space instead of a tab for indentation on line 42. Guess I'll be using spaces from now on to avoid the wrath of PEP 8!"

• "I tried to port my perfectly indented Python code to JavaScript, but it looked like a jumbled mess without the comforting structure of indentation. Maybe I should just stick to Python and enjoy the readability while I can."

If you actually want to learn more...

• Tabs versus Spaces: An Eternal Holy War: A humorous take on the age-old debate between using tabs or spaces for indentation. Choose your side wisely!

• A Foolish Consistency: The Hobgoblin of Little Minds: PEP 8, the Python style guide, weighs in on the importance of consistent indentation and when it's okay to break the rules.

• The Cost of Indentation: A thought-provoking article that questions the necessity of indentation in modern programming languages and IDEs. Prepare to have your world turned upside down!

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.