The programmer's thesaurus

Introduction

In computer-related areas, the English language offers a broad vocabulary. Therefore, naming functions and methods can be a difficult task. This document aims to be a comprehensive reference which will help you finding the most appropriate word in all situations.

If you want to contribute, we'd be happy to include your changes. Please fork this repository and then send in a pull request.

Variable, Property and Attribute names

Language features

• arg, argument
• attr, attribute
• const, constant
• def, default
• func, function
• ident, identifier
• param, parameter
• spec, specifier
• var, variable

Object-Orientation

• action
• class
• context
• dependency
• ident, identifier
• inheritance
• inst, instance
• itf, interface
• memb, member
• meth, method
• mod, module
• obj, object
• priv, private
• prop, property
• protected
• public
• published
• res, resource
• routine
• self
• shared
• this

States

• hidden
• mutable
• transient
• volatile

Loops, Lists and Arrays

• bucket
• el, elem, element
• i, idx, index
• it, item
• it, iter, iterator
• slot

Tables

• col, column
• row

Date/Time

• d, day
• date
• h, hour
• hrs, hours
• m, min, minute
• m, month
• mins, minutes
• time
• y, year

Processes

• pid, processId
• proc, process

Search

• needle
• haystack
• off, ofs, offset
• pos, position
• occurrence

Trees

• child
• node
• parent
• path

Graphical User Interfaces

• box
• dialog
• entry
• expose
• geometry
• opt, option
• widget

Tasks and Operations

• action
• batch
• bulk
• job
• mass
• op, operation
• proc, process
• progress
• routine
• task

Entities

• block
• bundle
• context
• entity
• group
• session
• transaction

Event handling

• caller
• cb, callback
• context
• hook
• sender
• sig, signal
• subscr, subscriber

Memory and Garbage Collection

• addr, address
• allocator
• arena
• block
• buf, buffer
• capacity
• chunk
• context
• mem, memory
• pool
• ptr, pointer
• refcnt, reference count
• segment
• size
• storage

Networking

• chunk
• conn, connection
• host
• ip
• packet
• payload
• socket

Web development

• cookie
• sess, session

User Interfaces

• caption
• descr, description
• headline
• name
• pg, page
• title

File

• directory
• eof, endOfFile
• file
• io
• path

Data types/structures

• buf, buffer
• ptr, pointer
• str, string

Links

• prev, next

Debugging and Error handling

• bug
• crash
• err, error, errno
• exc, exception
• failure
• fix
• prio, priority
• st, status
• tc, test case
• tb, test bundle
• ts, test suite

Messaging

• msg, message
• req, request
• resp, response

Return values

• out, output
• res, result

Lines

• eol, endOfLine
• bol, beginningOfLine

Positions and lengths

• capacity
• cnt, count
• len, length
• off, offset
• pos, position
• size

Database

• cur, current
• cur, cursor
• db, database
• qry, query
• record
• snapshot

Binaries

• symtab, symbol table
• syms, symbols

Time

• sec, s
• msec
• usec
• time
• diff, difference
• tz, timezone

Characters and Strings

• buf, buffer
• c, ch: character
• cstr: C string
• len, length
• s, str: string
• sz: zero-terminated string

General

• env, environment
• val, value

Function names

Object-Orientation

• depend
• inherit

Event handling

• attach
• bind
• call
• conn, connect
• detach
• disconn, disconnect
• emit
• invoke
• notify
• observe
• pass
• register
• restore
• subscribe
• trigger
• unregister
• unsubscribe

Database

• commit
• conn, connect
• disconn, disconnect
• populate
• qry, query

ACL

• grant
• deny

Test suites

• assert
• expect

Serialising

• bundle
• escape
• obfuscate
• sanitise
• serialise
• wrap, unwrap

Resizing

• enlarge
• extend
• grow
• resize

Compression

• compress
• minimize
• shorten
• shrink

Math

• rd, round
• rnd, random, randomize

Strings

• append
• bind
• concat, concatenate
• format
• insert
• resize
• trim

Loops, Lists and Arrays

• add
• bwd, backward
• each, foreach
• enum, enumerate
• find
• fwd, forward
• iter, iterate
• list
• lookup
• pop
• push
• remove
• rev, reverse
• rpt, repeat
• rwd, rewind

Trees

• appendChild
• collapse
• createElement
• expand
• getChildren
• hasChildren
• setAttribute

Templates

• assign
• display
• render

Memory and Garbage Collection

• alloc, allocate
• dispose
• free
• invalidate
• link
• new
• ref, reference
• relate
• release
• retain
• steal
• unlink
• unref, unreference

Networking

• accept
• addHandler, e.g. addEventHandler
• bind
• download
• handshake
• listen
• read
• recv, receive
• send, e.g. sendAuthRequest
• upload
• write

Encoding

• decode
• decrypt
• encode
• encrypt
• mangle

Graphical User Interfaces

• activate
• draw
• hide
• paint
• update

Tasks and Operations

• continue
• handle
• hold
• invoke
• launch
• proceed
• process
• redo
• request
• reset
• respond
• restart
• resume
• run
• start
• stop
• suspend
• undo

Processes

• exec, execute
• kill
• launch
• restart

Receiving

• fetch
• get, e.g getName, getById
• grab
• obtain
• read
• recv, receive
• request
• retr, retrieve

Transmission

• deliver
• send
• transfer
• transmit

Clusters and Collections

• accumulate
• aggregate
• collect

Iterating

• each, foreach
• getIter, getIterator
• iter, iterate
• key
• list
• map
• next
• prev
• reduce
• valid
• value
• walk

Checking

• can
• has
• is

ORM

• belongsTo
• hasOne
• hasMany

Comparing

• cmp, compare
• contains
• diff
• eq, equals, isEqual
• matches

Streams

• rewind
• tell
• peek

File

• append
• lock
• open
• read
• unlock
• write

Construction

• acquire
• alloc, allocate
• boot, bootstrap
• bootstrap
• build
• constr, construct
• create
• ctor, constructor
• decl, declare
• init, initialize
• install
• instantiate
• load, e.g. loadFile
• make
• new
• start

Destruction

• cleanup
• clean
• clear
• close
• commit
• del, delete
• destroy
• destruct
• dispose
• drop
• dtor, destructor
• erase
• exit
• finalize
• free
• invalidate
• kill
• purge
• release
• rem, remove
• stop
• term, terminate
• uninstall
• unlink
• wipe

Updating

• upd, update
• upgr, upgrade
• refr, refresh
• touch (updates timestamp to match current time)

Merging

• apply
• combine
• concat, concatenate
• join
• merge

Duplication

• cpy, copy
• clone
• dup, duplicate

Assigning

• assign
• set

Output

• pr, print
• echo
• write
• disp, display

Search

• extract
• filter
• find, e.g. findRoute, rfind, reverseFind
• lookup
• match
• read
• scan
• search
• seek

Error handling

• assert
• catch
• debug
• except
• expect
• getCode
• getFile
• getLine
• getMessage
• getTrace
• pass
• raise
• throw
• try

Storage

• read
• save
• store

Class names

• Abstract, e.g. AbstractManufacturer
• Batch
• Behavior
• ConcreteFilter
• Debugger
• Decorator
• Facade, e.g. PurchasingFacade
• Facade
• Factory
• Figure
• Filter
• FrontController: addPreFilter, addPostFilter, handleRequest
• Handler, e.g. RequestHandler
• Implementation
• Instance
• Interface
• Listener
• Manager
• Middleware
• Operation
• Processor
• Provider
• Proxy
• Registry
• Reporter
• Service
• Singleton
• Storage
• Utils

Events

• EventDispatcher
• Observer

Collections

• Chain, e.g. FilterChain
• Cluster
• Collection
• Container
• Repository
• Suite

Components

• Component
• Kit
• Module
• Package

Interface names

• Iterator: current, key, next, rewind, valid
• IteratorAggregate
• Observable: attach, detach, notify
• Processor
• Serializable

Example: Car rental company

Classes

• Vehicle
• Customer
• RentalAction

Methods

• isReturned
• isVehicleAvailable
• rentVehicle
• sellVehicle
• returnVehicle
• startEngine
• stopEngine

Variables

• returnDate
• markVehicleReturned
• rentalActions

Exceptions

• VehicleNotAvailableException
• MileageLimitExceededException

Processes

• connecting
• idling
• initialising
• lingering
• pending
• processing
• reading
• waiting
• writing

States

• attached
• closed
• connected
• idle
• initialized
• listening
• paused
• readable
• stalled
• writable

Roles

• Administrator
• Author
• Collaborator
• Contributor
• Editor
• Guest
• Manager
• Member
• Moderator
• Publisher
• Subscriber
• User
• Viewer

VCS commit messages

This chapter introduces some rules for commit messages and provides you with a few sample sentences which you can use in your own commits.

Rules

First of all, it's advisable to generally use the present tense in the header in which you only give an abstract description of your changes. For consistency, terminate all header messages with a point. An exception is non-linguistic contents such as commands, e.g. s/needle/replace/.

In the body you should go into detail. If appropriate, may also want to give some background information. Unlike the header, it's valid to use the past tense in the body.

As for object-oriented projects, the general structure of the header is:

Module: Message

When a commit affects multiple modules, you can enumerate them:

Module1, Module2: Message

Alternatively, the enumeration may be omitted if there are too many.

Deletion

• Delete X
• Get rid of X
• Drop X (e.g. Drop support for X)

Bug fixing

• Fix X
• Fix bug
• Spotted with X (e.g. Valgrind) This should go into the description.

Replacing components

• Make use of X.
• Merge X and Y
• Use X in favour of Y
• Use X instead of Y

General changes

• Change X
• Cosmetic changes
• Enhance X
• Facilitate X
• Improve X
• Restore X (e.g. Restore old behaviour)
• Revert X
• Revise X
• Rework X
• Synchronise with upstream changes
• Trivial change(s)

Logging levels

Sorted by severity:

• Trace
• Debug
• Informational
• Warning
• Error
• Critical
• Fatal

Abbreviations

Each language has a certain number of words which appears to be specific to it. This chapter collects unique technical vocabulary grouped by the language it primarily occurs in. The purpose is to help you discovering interesting concepts and to give you some inspiration for making up your own ingenious class, variable and function names.

PHP

• __autoload
• __construct
• __unset
• trim
• implode
• explode
• needle
• haystack

C

• strcmp, sometimes: streq
• argv, argc
• strlen
• strcpy
• strdup

C++

• ctor
• dtor
• cstr

Python

• __init__
• __new__

Haskell

• map
• filter
• bind
• newtype

Lua

• pairs, ipairs
• tonumber

Ruby

• puts
• upcase
• times

Java

• bean
• servlet
• datasource

Authors

• Tim Nieradzik
• Will Hilton

Credits

Most OO-related terms were taken from the book "PHP Design Patterns" by Stephan Schmidt. Contributions were received from:

• Zachary Halbrecht

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.