How to choose the right C user identifier name?

Identifier selection follows the principle of "seeing the name and knowing the meaning", follows the compiler mechanism and cognitive habits, avoid abbreviations, follow naming specifications, and use underlined nomenclature to make it clearer. Through example comparison, the code readability can be improved, which is an important step in writing high-quality C code.

How to choose the right C user identifier name? This question seems simple, but it actually has a secret. A good identifier can make your code like an elegant movement, pleasing to the eye, easy to understand and maintain; on the contrary, it is like a messy note, which is a headache. I have been writing code for decades and have been struggling with countless pitfalls. Today I will talk about this seemingly inconspicuous but crucial detail.

Let’s talk about the conclusion first: When choosing an identifier, you must follow the principle of “seeing the name and knowing the meaning”, be concise and clear, and avoid ambiguity. But this is just superficial skill, and a deeper consideration lies in understanding the operating mechanism of the compiler and the cognitive habits of programmers.

The limitations of identifiers in C language, you must know: they can only be composed of letters, numbers and underscores, and must start with letters or underscores. But just meeting these rules is far from enough. Think about it, a , b , c identifiers comply with the rules, but do you dare to use them in large-scale projects? Code readability instantly returns to zero.

A good identifier should be like an accurate label that instantly tells you the purpose of a variable or function. For example, student_age is much better than age , which clearly shows that this variable stores the age of the student. For example, calculate_average is easier to understand than calcAvg . Although the latter is more concise, it has some losses in readability, which is not worth the gain.

I have seen many programmers like to use abbreviations, such as cnt for count and idx for index . This may not be a big problem in small projects, but once the project scale is expanded, this abbreviation will become a maintenance nightmare. Remember, your code is not only written for yourself, but also for future you and your team members.

Another issue that is easy to overlook is the naming specification. Consistency is very important. If part of your project uses camel nomenclature (such as studentAge ) and part of it uses underscore nomenclature (such as student_age ), the code will look very confusing. Choose a norm and stick to it. I personally prefer underscore nomenclature because it is clearer and easier to be consistent across languages.

Finally, let’s look at some negative teaching materials and how to improve:

Bad examples: x , y , z , tmp , data

Improved examples: student_x_coordinate , student_y_coordinate , temporary_result , student_data

Have you seen it? With just a few letters, the readability of the code has been increased by several orders of magnitude. Remember, writing code is not only to make the program run, but also to make the program easy to understand and maintain. Choosing the right identifier is the first and crucial step in writing high-quality C code. This is not only a skill, but also a reflection of programming literacy. Hope my experience will help you.

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