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I know that naming variables is one of the biggest unsolved problems of Computer Science but how would you name a boolean flag to be self explanatory? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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What I mean is: some boolean flags are perfect for the real world phenomenon they are representing e.g. is_light_on makes you understand perfectly that when it is true the light is on and when it is false the light is off.

There are other cases in which if you didn't write the code and you don't read any additional documentation, everything is not clear just by looking at the variable name e.g. is_person_standing, when true it's clear what that means but when false, is the person sitting? Lying? Kneeling?

I'm obviously not talking about cases in which there are more states, boolean would of course not be a good solution in those cases. I'm talking about programs in which there are only two states but it's not obvious, without external knowledge, which ones they are.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Not sure I understand your second example, if is_person_standing is false I'd assume the person is not standing and that's all the information is needed. As you said it yourself, if more information is needed maybe a boolean is not the best choice, or a second variable could be used.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I explained myself poorly, what I was asking is about cases in which there are only two states e.g. standing and sitting and they are equally important so is_person_standing would not be a good name

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I think I see what you mean, you have two states and kind of opposite but you usually name the variable after one of them, so you have to "guess" the other one. For instance you could have isRightHand, the opposite state being left hand, but from the variable name you can't be sure if it could be "not right hand" as in right foot or something like that. Man it's kind of difficult to come up with examples.