Naming Things: The Hardest Problem in Software Engineering

Naming is one of the most difficult and enduring challenges in software engineering, but few of us do it well. This practical and comprehensive book provides a set of principles, rules, and application guidelines for efficiently choosing good names in your code.

These skills can be used throughout your career, and they’re useful for every programming language, technical domain, and experience level. The book incorporates real-world examples to illustrate how to choose good names and avoid bad names.

This book includes:

• Rules for how to choose good names and avoid bad names
• Principles to help you remember the general qualities of good names
• Real-world examples
• Guidelines on the application of these rules and principles, including balancing tradeoffs, renaming best practices, and choosing domain-specific names
• Tips on how to develop your naming skills throughout your career

Changes in the second edition:

• Improved conciseness
• Removal of less important content
• Grammatical improvements
• Formatting improvements