Java Programming Style Guide

Naming Conventions

The following general guidelines apply to choosing identifier names in your programs:

Use full English descriptions for names. Avoid using abbreviations. For example, use names like firstName, lastName, and middleInitial rather than the shorter versions fName, lName, and mi.
Avoid overly long names (greater than 15 characters). For example, setTheLengthField should be shortened to setLength.
Avoid names that are very similar or differ only in case. For example, avoid using the names product, products, and Products in the same program for fear of mixing them up.

Rationale:

You should write your code with the aim of making it understandable to others. Others will need to read and understand your code and one of the major keys to understanding is through the use of meaningful identifier names.

By using meaningful names, you go a long ways towards writing self-documenting code. That is, code that is understandable on its own without requiring accompanying comments. For example, look at the following code segment and determine for yourself that the variable names salesTax and incomeTax are preferable to tax1 and tax2 because the names are self documenting.

double tax1;       // sales tax rate (example of poor variable name)
double tax2;       // income tax rate (example of poor variable name)

double salesTaxRate;      //no comments required due to
double incomeTaxRate;     //self-documenting variable names