Naming convention (programming)

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In computer programming, a naming convention is a set of rules for choosing names. For more general usage, see Naming convention.

Description

Naming conventions are useful when choosing the character sequence to be used for identifiers which denote:

Description

Reasons for using a naming convention (as opposed to allowing programmers to choose any character sequence) include:

  • To reduce the effort needed to read and understand source code
  • To enable code reviews be able to focus on more important issues than arguing over syntax and naming standards.
  • To enable code quality review tools be able to focus their reporting mainly on significant issues other than syntax and style preferences.
  • To enhance source code appearance (for example, by disallowing overly long names or unclear abbreviations).

On the difficulty of naming things

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

-- Phil Karlton

This quote (much-repeated-with-variations) may misquoted or mis-attributed. (See TwoHardThings by Martin Fowler.)

Wider usage

The term naming convention has a similar meaning in other fields.

See also

External links