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Cover image for Code Smell 105 - Comedian Methods
Maxi Contieri
Maxi Contieri

Posted on • Originally published at maximilianocontieri.com

Code Smell 105 - Comedian Methods

Use professional and meaningful names

TL;DR: Don't be informal or offensive

Problems

  • Readability

  • Unprofessional work

Solutions

  1. Choose good and professional names.

Context

Our profession has a creative side.

Sometimes we get bored and try to be funny.

Sample Code

Wrong

function erradicateAndMurderAllCustomers();

//unprofessional and offensive
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Right

function deleteAllCustomers();

//more declarative and professional
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Detection

[X] SemiAutomatic

We can have a list of forbidden words.

We can also check them in code reviews.

Names are contextual, so it would be a difficult task for an automatic linter.

Naming conventions should be generic and should not include cultural jargon.

Tags

  • Naming

Conclusion

Be professional in the way you name things in your code.

Don't be try to be a comedian by giving a variable a silly name.

You should write production code so future software developers (even you) should easily understand.

Relations

More Info

Credits

Photo by Stewart Munro on Unsplash


This ‘users are idiots, and are confused by functionality’ mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it.

Linus Torvalds


This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

Top comments (4)

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yoursunny profile image
Junxiao Shi

What about purgeCustomers?
Now, purge could mean either eradicate and murder or delete all.

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mcsee profile image
Maxi Contieri

Since it has a meaning on computer records, it would be fine as well

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bn_geek profile image
Mohcin Bounouara

Naming looks like just a simple thing we do every time we want to create an method or function.. but the right naming is a key for improving our code. Thanks for you articles.

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mcsee profile image
Maxi Contieri

Glad you like them ! :)