Every programmer should be aware of the best practices to be followed while writing a piece of code. Good code is self-explanatory, readable, optimized and easy to maintain. Any piece of code should be human-readable and as easy to understand as a story. Naming conventions play a major role in this.
Below are certain norms which should be considered while naming a variable,
No. Variable name should be
1 Intention revealing. The reader should understand the usage of the variable from the name; e.g. var isValidName = false is more appropriate than var flag = false
2 Meaningfully Distinct Name. It shouldn’t be similar; e.g. productInfo and productData are confusing names for two different variables
3 Searchable. The reader should be able to search the variable easily in IDE; e.g., if the programmer used i (instead of index), searching the variable will be a pain, as the whole code will have the letter i in different names.
4 Pronounceable. The reader should be able to pronounce it; e.g., var genymdhs is just gibberish while generationTimeStamp is meaningful and pronounceable
5 No Encoding. Don’t add context; type in the name. (e.g. Hungarian notation is a practice of adding variable type in the name) e.g userNameString
6 Easy to Differentiate. Use names that can be easily differentiated; e.g., controllerForEfficientHandlingOfUserName and controllerForEfficientStorageOfName are difficult to differentiate. handlingOfUserName and storageOfUserName can be a replacement for the above names.
7 Use Camel Case Naming Convention; e.g., var userName
Below are certain norms which should be considered while naming a method.
No. Norms
1 Use a verb while naming methods. Add get/ set/ is according to intention of function;e.g., use deletePage() instead of pageDeletion()
2 Use pronounceable, intention revealing names. The reader should be able to pronounce it easily and understand the purpose of the method; e.g., getUserName() reveals intentions of method instead of getNameString()
3 One word for one intention. Don’t use the same word for two purposes; e.g., use insert if you want to add only one item in the collection. Use add if you want to add multiple items.
4 No Similar words. Use the same word instead of using similar wordsl e.g., getUserName(), fetchAddress() makes code difficult to maintain. Instead, getUserName(), getAddress() could be appropriate choice of names.
5 Use camel Case naming convention e.g. getUserName()
6 While naming overloaded constructor, use argument description in the name e.g. Complex point = Complex.FromRealNumber(35.0) is easy to use than Complex point = new Complex()
Below are certain norms which should be considered while naming a class,
No. Norms
1 Use Pascal case naming convention; e.g., Animal
2 Use nouns while naming class; e.g., use AddressParser instead of ParseAddress