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Atul Sharma
559 PointsBAD example of setting variables
variable "color" and Java Object "Color" makes learning so difficult. Isn't better to avoid variables "color" or "relativeLayout" and make them something easy to use and remember ?
2 Answers
Justin Horner
Treehouse Guest TeacherHello Atul,
I understand how this could be confusing at first but you'll find that this is actually a common pattern for naming variables. You want variable names that are descriptive and in context. Being too short or arbitrary will not carrying meaning for the next dev working in the project or even for yourself for long-term maintenance.
Matching the variable name close to the type ensures that we understand what the type of the variable is without constantly referring to it's declaration. This is especially true when working in a large code base.
When naming variables always ask yourself, "Will I know the purpose and type of this variable based on the name weeks, months or even years down the road?". Ultimately, naming conventions are personal preference and will be different across companies and teams but they should always favor better understanding and maintainability.
I hope this helps.
Atul Sharma
559 PointsHi Justin,
I guess the good programming practices (atleast in VB, which I use) call for prefixing string variables with "str" in front of variable so that somewhere 1000 lines down the person working on code knows he/she is dealing with string variables.
I think just plainly setting a variable as "color" wouldn't it have been much better if the instructor had used "strcolor" or "varcolor" not sure if this is standard practice in Java though.
HTH