How to choose proper variable names for long names

Question

I need help choosing proper names for variables with long actual names. I have read pep8 docs, but I couln't find addressed such issue.

Would you rename very_long_variable_name to something like vry_lng_var_nm or would you leave it as it is. I notice that pythons build in libraries have very short names and I'd like to follow the conventions if it exists for this case.

I know I can name it something not very descriptive and add description, which would explain its meaning, but what do you think should be the variables name.

Answer 1

PEP8 recommends short variable names, but achieving this requires good programming hygiene. Here are some advices to keep variable names short.

Variable names are not full descriptors

First, do not think of variable names as full descriptors of their content. Names should be clear mainly to allow to keep track of where they come from and only then can they give a bit about the content.

# This is very descriptive, but we can infer that by looking at the expression
students_with_grades_above_90 = filter(lambda s: s.grade > 90, students)

# This is short and still allows the reader to infer what the value was
good_students = filter(lambda s: s.grade > 90, students)

Put details in comments

Use comments and doc strings for description of what is going on, not variable names.

# We feel we need a long variable description because the function is not documented
def get_good_students(students):
    return filter(lambda s: s.grade > 90, students)

students_with_grades_above_90 = get_good_students(students)


# If the reader is not sure about what get_good_students returns,
# their reflex should be to look at the function docstring
def get_good_students(students):
    """Return students with grade above 90"""
    return filter(lambda s: s.grade > 90, students)

# You can optionally comment here that good_students are the ones with grade > 90
good_students = get_good_students(students)

Too specific name might mean too specific code

If you feel you need a very specific name for a function, it might be that the function is too specific itself.

# Very long name because very specific behaviour
def get_students_with_grade_above_90(students):
    return filter(lambda s: s.grade > 90, students)

# Adding a level of abstraction shortens our method name here
def get_students_above(grade, students):
    return filter(lambda s: s.grade > grade, students)

# What we mean here is very clear and the code is reusable
good_students = get_students_above(90, students)

Notice how, in the previous example, using grade as a function argument allowed to remove it from the function name without loss of clarity.

Keep short scopes for quick lookup

Finally, encapsulate logic in shorter scopes. This way, you don't need to give that much detail in the variable name, as it can be looked up quickly a few lines above. A rule of thumb is to make your functions fit in your IDE without scrolling and encapsulate some logic in new function if you go beyond that.

# line 6
names = ['John', 'Jane']

... # Hundreds of lines of code

# line 371
# Wait what was names again?
if 'Kath' in names:
    ...

Here I lost track of what names was and scrolling up will make me lose track of even more. This is better:

# line 6
names = ['John', 'Jane']

# I encapsulate part of the logic in another function to keep scope short
x = some_function()
y = maybe_a_second_function(x)

# line 13
# Sure I can lookup names, it is right above
if 'Kath' in names:
    ...

Spend time thinking about readability

The last but not least is to devote time thinking about how you can make your code more readable. This is as important as the time you spend thinking about the logic and code optimization. The best code is the code that everyone can read, and thus everyone can improve.