Naming Convention in Programming Languages
When working with programming languages, it is essential to create variables, functions, and other elements. However, naming these components can vary depending on individual preferences. Some developers prefer using underscores to separate words, resulting in names like “person_age.” Others choose to capitalize each word, resulting in names like “PersonAge.” Additionally, there are those who combine both styles, resulting in names like “personAge.” These different naming conventions play a significant role.
The choice of a naming convention may depend on the programming language being used, as well as the personal preference and comfort of the developer. It is important to select a consistent naming convention to ensure readability and maintainability within the codebase or project.
Popular Naming Convention Examples
There are mainly exist four primary naming conventions that programmers commonly employ. These conventions serve as guidelines for naming variables, functions, and other elements within code. This four naming convention are snake case, pascal case, camel case and the kebab case. Let’s learn them:
Snake Case
In Snake Case, words are written in lowercase and separated by underscores (_). For example: my_variable_name. Snake Case is commonly used in many programming languages, including Python, to name variables, functions, and constants.
Snake Case Example
Snake case is one of the most common approach using by programmers. Many programmer choose this snake case because this is easily selectable. Here are examples of snake case:
my_variable_name = 5;Pascal Case
In Pascal Case it capitalizes the first letter of each word, including the first one. For example: MyVariableName. Pascal Case is commonly used in languages like C#, Visual Basic, and Ruby to name classes and types.
pascalcase example
Pascal case also widely used, in pascal case every word first letter will be capitalized. Here is an example:
MyVariableName = 5;Camel Case
In Camel Case capitalizes the first letter of each word except the first one, without using any separators. For example: myVariableName. Camel Case is often used in languages like Java, JavaScript, and C# to name classes, methods, and properties.
myVariableName = 5;Kebab Case
In Kebab Case, words are written in lowercase and separated by hyphens (-). For example: my-variable-name. Kebab Case is commonly used in web development, particularly in HTML, CSS, and URLs, to create readable and SEO-friendly names for classes, IDs, and URLs.
Kebab Case Example
my-variable = 5;Tips for Naming Convention
- Keep your variable/functions etc names in short, but meaningful.
- Make use of consistent and one naming convention for a single project.
Remember, regardless of the naming convention you choose, the primary goal is to write code that is clear, readable, and maintainable, making it easier for both you and other developers to work with and understand.