Names should be chosen as carefully as the name of your first-born child. It should be obvious from reading the code how it works.
- Choose names that are descriptive of the purpose. For example, a variables name should stand for one concept. Its better to have a variable unorderedNumbers, which is sorted and stored in orderedNumbers instead of saving both lists in the same variable numbers.
- Avoid misinformation. For example, ambiguities, confusion with similar names or easily confused characters (l and 1, O and 0).
- Make differences clear. Avoid very similar expressions and blank words are redundant (a, an, the, info, data).
- Use pronounceable names. Programming is a social activity that people talk about with others.
- Use searchable names. Searchable means avoiding search conflicts with other similar or even identical names. The length of a name should match the size of its scope. For local counting loops, one letter is sufficient; if the variable is used in several places in the code, it needs a longer name.
- Avoid encodings. There should be no references to the scope or type of the variable in the name.
- Avoid mental mappings. The name of a variable should not require mental effort to understand. For example, unusual abbreviations should be avoided.
- Names of classes consist of nouns or substantivistic expressions.
- Method names
- They consist of a verb or an expression with a verb. Accessors, mutators, and predicates should be named after their value and follow the JavaBean standard (prefixes: get, set, is, has).
- Overloaded constructors can lead to confusion, e.g. if one constructor accepts a float argument and and another one an int argument. Overloaded constructors should be declared as private and functions should be used to create instances whose names highlight the difference.
- No puns or humorous names.
- Choose one word for each concept. For example, if you use the word "fetch" once for a particular concept, you should consistently use "fetch" instead of synonyms such as "retrieve".
- Avoid ambiguities as in the word "add" (addition or adding).
Domain-specific terms * Use terms from the solution domain. Programmers will be reading your code, so use technical language. * Use terms from the problem domain. If there are no computer science terms, at least domain experts can refer to them.
- Add meaningful context. Together with the names of other variables and methods, this context can be created.
- Do not add superfluous context. Shorter names are better than longer ones, as long as they are clear.
- Dare to rename things. Your colleagues should be grateful for improvements.