Good practices

PEP = Python Enhancement Proposal

_images/naming_recommend.png

Conventions de nommage

Noms à éviter

Never use those characters alone as variable names :

  • l (L lowercase)
  • O (o capital)
  • I (i capital).

The display of those caracters with some fonts might lead to mix them up with 0 or 1.

Modules and packages names

Package : package

Module : module_name

  • short names
  • only lowercase characters
  • may contain underscores _
  • Though packages names may also contain underscores _ but PEP8 does not recommend it.

Classes names

MyClass

With barely no exception, classes names are made of lowercase letters, with the exception of the first letter of each words that constitutes it.

Exceptions names

CustomError

As exceptions are classe, they are names according to the same convention. If the exception is an error, they integrate the Error suffix (SyntaxError`, IndexError, …)

Variables, object instances, functions and methods

function_name

variable_name

Those use all the same convention : lowercase letters with words separated by underscores _.

Non public methods and instances variables

_non_public_method

_instance_variable

Private variables

__my_private_variable

This isn’t exactly a convention as it has an impact on the way the interpreter works : it actually replaces the names with _ClassName prefix. See here for further infos.

Constants

NAME_OF_MY_CONSTANT

All capital letters, with words separated by underscores _.