onetruebrace

onetruebrace refers to One True Brace Style (OTBS), a named convention used in software development to describe a specific approach to placing braces in code written in C, C++, Java, C#, and other languages with block delimiters. The style is part of the broader brace-style family that includes several competing formats for where to position opening and closing braces.

The core characteristic of OTBS is that the opening brace typically appears at the end of the line that starts a block, such as after a control statement or function signature, and the closing brace begins on a new line aligned with the start of the block. This results in a compact, single-line opening for blocks like if (condition) {, while (cond) {, or function foo() {. The exact handling of else and else-if can vary by sub-variant, but the general principle remains a consistent, inline opening brace with a separate closing brace on its own line.

OTBS is one of several historical brace styles, alongside Allman, K&R, and others. The name itself is partly humorous and reflects debates within programming communities about the “true” or canonical way to format braces; there is no universal mandate applicable to all languages or projects. In practice, many teams adopt OTBS as part of a formal coding standard, while others prefer alternative styles. Modern development tools, such as code formatters and linters, can enforce OTBS automatically to maintain consistency across a codebase.