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This advice should be universal in coding. When I first started programming, I had a manager that hated 1-2 character variables. But they make sense for loop

This advice should be universal in coding. When I first started programming, I had a manager that hated 1-2 character variables. But they make sense for loop iterators.

thunky 4y ago
For loop iterations it's fine, but I think Go code often takes this too far. It often takes longer to read a single character than a word, because I have to mentally map the character to the word anyway. Reminds me of when people go nuts aliasing table names in SQL queries, which IMO makes it harder to read as well.
- philote 4y ago
  I agree. Plus, with IDEs and auto-completion, why not use longer names?
  - vbezhenar 4y ago
    One reason so use short names is to keep lines short and reduce line wrapping. This helps to read code, especially when you do 3-way merges.
  - GuB-42 4y ago
    - Longer names mean longer lines, and lines that are longer than your viewport are terrible. Less of a problem with modern ultrawide screens, but passed ~100 characters, it starts becoming a problem in some cases (ex: diffing). Personally, I have a soft limit at 80, hard limit at 120, because that's what works best for me. - With such rules, variable length is a hint of its scope. For example, I tend to use "i" when the loop body is small, "idx" or "index" when it is a bit larger, and a more descriptive name when it exceeds one screen. This way, just by looking at a single line, I already have a hint about its context. - Just because a variable name is short doesn't mean it is meaningless. For example "i", "j", "k", are loop indices, "x", "y", "z" are point coordinates and "dx", "dy", and "dz" are differences, "a" and "b" are both sides of a comparison function, "t" can be a temporary variable or a time depending on context, etc... The corollary is to make sure you use your single letter variables consistently. If I see an "x" in a place where a coordinate can be used and it does not refer to a coordinate, or an "i" that is not a loop index, I will be confused.
  - mikepurvis 4y ago
    If you have to use that name a bunch of times close together, it bloats line lengths which also affects readability.
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  There's also a bit of Fitt's Law in here as well - I find it a lot harder to select, or put my cursor in, a single letter variable. So if I want to rename `i` to something else, I must carefully select `i`, whereas with a longer variable I find it easier to put my cursor in the middle of `index` and hit F2.
  - ErikCorry 4y ago
    If you are using a mouse for things like this you already lost though.
    - shepherdjerred 4y ago
      Most developers use their mouse quite often.
  - SnooSux 4y ago
    I started using ii as my iterator variable name for similar reasons. Easier to highlight and Ctrl-F for. Also removing ambiguity when using i as the imaginary constant.
- Xeoncross 4y ago
  The constancy in Go makes this better. I have come to expect `r` to be an io.Reader or http.Request depending on context. There are a few interfaces in Go that are used heavily and I don't mind that people often use a single character for them. It's the same thing as everyone using `i` for iterators.
  - bpicolo 4y ago
    I just use reader//req. Code is instantly easier to read for me personally and no time has been wasted. It's all preference, of course.
    - kevmo314 4y ago
      Sometimes you run into packages called reader which makes for a less fun time using variable names that are also words.
    - rlabrecque 4y ago
      This is much nicer for other people coming into this. It's the same problem with spoken language and slang, slang is better if you know it, worse if you don't.
      - dimitrios1 4y ago
        Sorry to be pedantic (well, not really it's M.O. for a hacker news commentor after all, isn't it?) , but as someone who knows a few languages, slang is not an issue with spoken languages at all. You learn a language by full immersion with other speakers, who impart that knowledge unto you. Unless all you are doing is conversing with grammaticians and newscasters, you will pick up on regional and local differences, euphemisms, and slang.
    - shepherdjerred 4y ago
      I don't believe so. Imagine you're new to Go and you haven't mentally mapped all of these abbreviations. What would you rather read, `r` or `reader`?
- david422 4y ago
  Or in languages that you can import a resource but give it a custom name. So whenever you are reading someone else's code you have to double check to understand what is going on. For instance, import DiskUtils as DU, and now all the code references DU.diskSpace()
- monocasa 4y ago
  Exactly. I think a better heuristic rather than tying it to scope is to sort of semantically huffman encode. Using an iterator is probably the most used variable name that starts with an 'i', so it gets just plain 'i'. As a _concept_ gets more specific, then it gets a longer name.
SEJeff 4y ago
Yeah i for for loops (in python) x for comprehensions, etc, make sense. But in general, single character variables make code really hard to read.
- ehsankia 4y ago
  Yep, you should just use the best judgement, for example for distance, time in driving_metrics: speed = distance / time is a lot clearer than for d, t in driving_metrics: s = d / t even if it's used in a tiny scope once. But some things don't have a valuable meaning, or the meaning can trivially be inferred.
  - SEJeff 4y ago
    I meant i as in the iterator variable for a counter like when using enumerate() or a c style for loop where you manually specify the list index.
stevekemp 4y ago
When I started coding I'd type 10 FOR F = 1 TO 10 20 PRINT F, F*F 30 NEXT F Because "FOR" and "F" shared the same key, on my ZX Spectrum keyboard.
- antod 4y ago
  And for those that don't know - entering Basic code on the Spectrum (well the original one at least) was ALL single/shifted key shortcuts for keywords rather than typing them out. eg https://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/sinclair_zx-spectrum_keyboard-detail_hr.jpg https://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/sinclair_zx-spec... The low cost and quirky masochism was mainly why we loved it.
  - randomswede 4y ago
    Same thing for the ZX-80 and ZX-81. If you were careful with your text prompts, you could save several bytes by injecting a keyword instead of typing it out, but anything that was a "start of line only" could be tricky injecting into a string.

This advice should be universal in coding. When I first started programming, I had a manager that hated 1-2 character variables. But they make sense for loop iterators.

thunky 4y ago

For loop iterations it's fine, but I think Go code often takes this too far. It often takes longer to read a single character than a word, because I have to mentally map the character to the word anyway. Reminds me of when people go nuts aliasing table names in SQL queries, which IMO makes it harder to read as well.

philote 4y ago
I agree. Plus, with IDEs and auto-completion, why not use longer names?
- vbezhenar 4y ago
  One reason so use short names is to keep lines short and reduce line wrapping. This helps to read code, especially when you do 3-way merges.
- GuB-42 4y ago
  - Longer names mean longer lines, and lines that are longer than your viewport are terrible. Less of a problem with modern ultrawide screens, but passed ~100 characters, it starts becoming a problem in some cases (ex: diffing). Personally, I have a soft limit at 80, hard limit at 120, because that's what works best for me. - With such rules, variable length is a hint of its scope. For example, I tend to use "i" when the loop body is small, "idx" or "index" when it is a bit larger, and a more descriptive name when it exceeds one screen. This way, just by looking at a single line, I already have a hint about its context. - Just because a variable name is short doesn't mean it is meaningless. For example "i", "j", "k", are loop indices, "x", "y", "z" are point coordinates and "dx", "dy", and "dz" are differences, "a" and "b" are both sides of a comparison function, "t" can be a temporary variable or a time depending on context, etc... The corollary is to make sure you use your single letter variables consistently. If I see an "x" in a place where a coordinate can be used and it does not refer to a coordinate, or an "i" that is not a loop index, I will be confused.
- mikepurvis 4y ago
  If you have to use that name a bunch of times close together, it bloats line lengths which also affects readability.
madeofpalk 4y ago
There's also a bit of Fitt's Law in here as well - I find it a lot harder to select, or put my cursor in, a single letter variable. So if I want to rename `i` to something else, I must carefully select `i`, whereas with a longer variable I find it easier to put my cursor in the middle of `index` and hit F2.
- ErikCorry 4y ago
  If you are using a mouse for things like this you already lost though.
  - shepherdjerred 4y ago
    Most developers use their mouse quite often.
- SnooSux 4y ago
  I started using ii as my iterator variable name for similar reasons. Easier to highlight and Ctrl-F for. Also removing ambiguity when using i as the imaginary constant.
Xeoncross 4y ago
The constancy in Go makes this better. I have come to expect `r` to be an io.Reader or http.Request depending on context. There are a few interfaces in Go that are used heavily and I don't mind that people often use a single character for them. It's the same thing as everyone using `i` for iterators.
- bpicolo 4y ago
  I just use reader//req. Code is instantly easier to read for me personally and no time has been wasted. It's all preference, of course.
  - kevmo314 4y ago
    Sometimes you run into packages called reader which makes for a less fun time using variable names that are also words.
  - rlabrecque 4y ago
    This is much nicer for other people coming into this. It's the same problem with spoken language and slang, slang is better if you know it, worse if you don't.
    - dimitrios1 4y ago
      Sorry to be pedantic (well, not really it's M.O. for a hacker news commentor after all, isn't it?) , but as someone who knows a few languages, slang is not an issue with spoken languages at all. You learn a language by full immersion with other speakers, who impart that knowledge unto you. Unless all you are doing is conversing with grammaticians and newscasters, you will pick up on regional and local differences, euphemisms, and slang.
  - shepherdjerred 4y ago
    I don't believe so. Imagine you're new to Go and you haven't mentally mapped all of these abbreviations. What would you rather read, `r` or `reader`?
david422 4y ago
Or in languages that you can import a resource but give it a custom name. So whenever you are reading someone else's code you have to double check to understand what is going on. For instance, import DiskUtils as DU, and now all the code references DU.diskSpace()
monocasa 4y ago
Exactly. I think a better heuristic rather than tying it to scope is to sort of semantically huffman encode. Using an iterator is probably the most used variable name that starts with an 'i', so it gets just plain 'i'. As a _concept_ gets more specific, then it gets a longer name.

SEJeff 4y ago

Yeah i for for loops (in python) x for comprehensions, etc, make sense. But in general, single character variables make code really hard to read.

ehsankia 4y ago
Yep, you should just use the best judgement, for example for distance, time in driving_metrics: speed = distance / time is a lot clearer than for d, t in driving_metrics: s = d / t even if it's used in a tiny scope once. But some things don't have a valuable meaning, or the meaning can trivially be inferred.
- SEJeff 4y ago
  I meant i as in the iterator variable for a counter like when using enumerate() or a c style for loop where you manually specify the list index.

stevekemp 4y ago

When I started coding I'd type 10 FOR F = 1 TO 10 20 PRINT F, F*F 30 NEXT F Because "FOR" and "F" shared the same key, on my ZX Spectrum keyboard.

antod 4y ago
And for those that don't know - entering Basic code on the Spectrum (well the original one at least) was ALL single/shifted key shortcuts for keywords rather than typing them out. eg https://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/sinclair_zx-spectrum_keyboard-detail_hr.jpg https://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/sinclair_zx-spec... The low cost and quirky masochism was mainly why we loved it.
- randomswede 4y ago
  Same thing for the ZX-80 and ZX-81. If you were careful with your text prompts, you could save several bytes by injecting a keyword instead of typing it out, but anything that was a "start of line only" could be tricky injecting into a string.