First, use whatever popular formatting is used in whatever language you are in (i.e. in PHP - UPPERCASE for constants, camelCase for functions, etc.) Benefit i

First, use whatever popular formatting is used in whatever language you are in (i.e. in PHP - UPPERCASE for constants, camelCase for functions, etc.) Benefit is your code is just compatible with most of the other code out there. then for me - be as descriptive and terse as possible in naming: function validateScheduleArray($schedulearray) {... For database fields I include the referencing table in the fieldname, (foreign keys may have the other table's name): i.e. contact table: contact_id customer_id contact_type contact_description contact_info or for more specific if you have similar tables in a large database: videocontact_id videocustomer_id videocontact_type videocontact_description videocontact_info with that you always have an idea where something originated from. Also I tend to go with singular terms for names in tables and fields. (contact instead of contacts) for fields with multiple values I use something like: contact_statlist The more your source reads like psuedocode the easier it is to understand and maintain.