There exist lots of discussions on variable naming. However, I would like to address a specific aspect. I am a data scientist and deal with dozens of features/variables/columns — however you may call them.
My work benefits from names that:
contain information about the variable's ontological background; this means that if a group of variables belongs together, they could be prefixed with a certain marker/symbol.
fixed-length variables are absolutely useful because they allow to easily create consistent plots.
Given these thoughts, from a software engineer's perspective who has to deal with these variables in the source code as well, what naming conventions would you suggest?
One example: Let's say you run an ice cream business and have variables for customer data, flavours, etc. Then I would suggest something like: FLAV_CHOCLT
, FLAV_MINTXX
, FLAV_STRBRY
, CUST_PHONEX
, CUST_STREET
, ...
I would love to hear your thoughts!