Request for help on naming conventions

[Steven D'Aprano]

Are there any useful naming conventions for modules, classes and functions?

For instance, should I name functions as verbs and classes as nouns?

eg
class Transformer():
pass

def transform():
do_stuff

What about the module name? transformations.py or transform.py?

What do people do with their own code? Do folks find that being
consistent helps them remember what is what, or do you name objects
whatever feels right at the time?

 

[Benjamin Niemann]

Are there any useful naming conventions for modules, classes and
functions?

For instance, should I name functions as verbs and classes as nouns?

eg
class Transformer():
pass

def transform():
do_stuff

What about the module name? transformations.py or transform.py?

You probably want to read the PEP 8, "Style Guide for Python Code":
http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html

What do people do with their own code? Do folks find that being
consistent helps them remember what is what, or do you name objects
whatever feels right at the time?

Naming convention are mostly a matter of personal taste (unless you are
working in a larger team, where there are some official conventions that
must be followed). So I would say the 'feels right' is the most important
factor.

 

[Terry Hancock]

Are there any useful naming conventions for modules, classes and functions?

For instance, should I name functions as verbs and classes as nouns?

Hmm. Okay, here's a few I use:

Classes are generally: Capitalized or CapWords and I use nouns.
Unless it's a "mix-in" in which case, I use adjectives. This mirrors
usage in the Zope sources, BTW.

Method names are either: funkyCaps (Zope uses this) or
lower_case_with_underscores.

I use verb names for methods and functions with very few exceptions.

I use nouns or occasionally adjectives for attributes.

Constants or enumeration values are ALLCAPS or ALL_CAPS, and
usually I define them within a namespace with a descriptive, all lower
case name (a trivial class). The enumeration is usually abbreviated,
but would be an adjective, e.g.:

color.RED

I use *plural* names for lists and tuples, but singular names for
mappings. This is so that I can use the singular in the loop:

for book in books:
pass

But I use single character variables in list comprehensions (and
generators, except I haven't used them yet):

late_books = [b for b in books if b.duedate < datetime.now()]

I also use single-character names in highly mathematical code:

def dot_product(a,b):
return a.x*b.x + a.y*b.y + a.z*b.z

But if a variable is going to be used more than about 20 lines
away from where it is defined, I use a descriptive word instead.

I like to use Capital or CapWords for modules, too, although I'm
beginning to wonder about that practice.

I really hate redundancy like this:

Topic.create_topic()

and usually prefer:

Topic.create()

which of course means, I have to qualify things a lot in my code.
This has never been an issue, but if it did, I would just introduce
an intermediary like this ("_" for "."):

Topic_create = Topic.create


After that, it's kind of case-by-case. Do read PEP 8, too, of
course.