naming convention of temp local variables

Question

What is the standard way to name a temp variable in the local function? let me give you an illustration of what I am doing. I get a pointer to a structure, so I want store one o

Answer 1

My suggestion is to simply incorporate the original variable name, or some other identifier that alerts readers of its intented function.

struct  Foo
{
  double m_d;

};


void function (Foo* f)
{
   double m_d_tmp = f->m_d;

       /***Other stuff***/

     f->m_d = m_d_tmp;
}

Answer 2

I would call it saved_m_d, or simply m_d (but then, I would also give m_d a different name).

Answer 3

Linus Torvalds - Linux Kernel coding style from Linus Torvalds :

LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i". Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of variable that is used to hold a temporary value.

If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome.

Answer 4

If a more descriptive them can't be thought of, the convention we practice at work is to use the name "my[object]" in lieu of a better name. Above all, make it descriptive so that your code is easier to understand and maintain. Self-documenting code is another benefit of doing this.

Answer 5

What do you store in the tmp variable? Use that description as a variable name, if it isn’t too long. For three-line functions (swap …) tmp is just fine. For almost everything else, be descriptive.

Answer 6

In general, I just use descriptive names. If it's an attribute, I make the first letter uppercase and apply camel-casing. For local variables, I keep everything lowercase. For variables that store attribute names, I use lower-case with an underscore as prefix. I avoid using any shorthand notations and generally don't need shorthand either. Code Completion is very useful with long names. :-)

Several IDE's will use Code Highlighting which is practical if you need to know if something is a class or variable. Thus I don't make many differences between class names and attribute names. (Except in Delphi, where I still prefix every class with a T since that's a standard convention in Delphi.)

And no, I don't use tmp. I write it out as Temporary, just in case I can't come up with a different name. Or I, J, K, L or M in case of index-numbers. (No, just those 5 letters, always uppercase.) In your case, I'd use "oldvalue" or "oldm_d" instead.