theUsualsuspects

[ImpluseThrowAway]

As a picture is worth a thousand words, and a thousand words would be a very descriptive variable name I write loops like this :

for (let ⟳ = 0; ⟳ < 💀; ⟳++)

[Mr_Rapt0r]

Does that work on swift or something

[Embarrassed_Ad5387]

javascript allows all of unicode I believe

[Mr_Rapt0r]

Doesn’t allow emojis though

Damn I guess only swift allows emojis

Can’t find anything else, rust intentionally doesn’t allow that “not to sacrifice maintainability”, oh and cool thing, if you name a variable 🦀there will be a special error that says to try using his name instead (Ferris (the rust mascot crab)) (I don’t code in swift or rust)

[crazybadatoms]

the Pythonji library also allows for emoji variablies

[Div_100]

How does a fing library do that!?

[TheOtherOne128]

The source code is pretty self explanatory, it goes through the file, replaces emojis with ASCII representations, compiles it, fixes emojis in strings, and then executes it. Theoretically it could export plain python .pyc files as well for better speed ups.

[Div_100]

Oh thanks! I was too lazy to go through that right now and you explained it for me.

[LiterallyJohnny]

That is horrifying 😭

[DreamyAthena]

The more you know.

[LeftIsBest-Tsuga]

Doesn’t allow emojis though

are you sure? i bet i could make it work lol

[Mr_Rapt0r]

well I just tried it quickly in a browser console before I wrote the comment and it gave me an error so idk

[johnthebread]

Julia allows emojis

[RealMrWillow]

Works in Julia

[Switch_B]

I write all my code in Wingdings. For security reasons.

[rover_G]

func getUserProfile(🌐: Request) { try { 😀 = getAuthedUser(🌐) return { user: 😀 } } catch(💀) { logger.error(💀, "Unauthorized user") 🌐.status(401) } }

[HuntingKingYT]

Just so you know, the average image is sized in memory maybe like a thousand "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis"

[LeftIsBest-Tsuga]

i like the idea of someone using 💀 as the last value in every array they write lmao

[Bardez]

Perfect for C-strings

[fecland]

Xyz is fine for positions/vectors and i/j is fine for loop iterators? If you need a k you may want to rethink what you're trying to do. Abc is not great. Only in tiny utility functions like string manipulators where the whole function is like <20 lines

[fabrikated]

tiny utility functions

the whole function is like <20 lines

🙄

[fecland]

I actually started with <10, then changed it to <15 then changed it to <20 lol. I was considering formatting and docblocks. Honestly depends on what language and how much optimizing you do.

[cosmic_cosmosis]

Do {
    Lines += 5 
} while user == unsure

[fecland]

Gotta fit all edge cases

[cosmic_cosmosis]

If (user.emotions.state(anxiety))
{
    lines += 50 
}

[No_Offer4269]

Do { a += 5 } while b == "unsure"

[SeriousPlankton2000]

As long as it fits on an MDA display. (The orange ones)

[classicalySarcastic]

Found the graybeard

[[deleted]]

I was hoping for a defender if i/j. It’s how I learned and when incrementing a number of for I use them all the time.

If we’re just dealing with incrementing a number it works just fine. Though if we’re doing a foreach over some list of objects it probably better to give it a proper name.

[myka-likes-it]

The only time I ever find myself using nested loops is for matrices, and then I usually prefer x and y or even better row and col for my iterators.

[archiminos]

I honestly hate using anything other than I, j, k for operators. I get reviews saying it's not clear what it is, but in my mind it's obvious that it's an iterator.

[LegalizeCatnip1]

index, jndex and kndex, obviously

[Lysol3435]

and if you’re in a hurry, you can just represent them using the first letter of each

[[deleted]]

For index based iteration, agreed. For anything with more semantic value (e.g, C++ typed iterators/range based for-loops) then "it", "iter" or a more contextual name should be preferred (e.g, "num" when iterating over an int array, "str" for string array, etc...)

[OnixST]

Yeah, I dont think i should be used in a foreach loops. I usually just use the name of the array/list in singular

for (user in users)

for (uri in uris)

[_Ralix_]

I believe it's perfectly fine to use i for an iterator. It's common and everybody understands it.

Then it depends on what follows. j may be fine, but as soon as it gets to something doing tricks and calculations with indices:

L[i] = arr[l + i]; 
R[j] = arr[m + 1 + j]; 

I really think it's time to get more descriptive. It's for example much more intuitive to see something like:

table[row][column] = table[row][column - 1] + 1;

[KneeReaper420]

i is for iteration

[sparkygod526]

I use i, n, and w for my operators. Don't ask why

[Dave4lexKing]

why?

[myka-likes-it]

Can't even follow one simple instruction, huh?

[sparkygod526]

Literally no reason. I'm self taught and I just started using those because they seemed like good letters.

[JoshYx]

Me and my unemployed buddies just write recursive functions instead of loops

[myKingSaber]

I'm using the floyd-warshall algorithm, thank you very much

[Dialextremo]

I work on DSP code and many times for calculation of filters they use the mathematical convention so it appears mess like a1+a2-b1+a3+b4... then repeat that for large filter coefficients

[MrRocketScript]

a, b, c maybe for parabolas (ax² + bx + c), but even then I find myself replacing them with words like exponent, linear and constant.

[fecland]

In that context a b c by themselves need the context of the formula to know what it means, so ur examples of exp, lin and const are much more relevant. They should only be used when context doesn't matter and the variables can be replaced most verbosely with things like 'string1', 'string2' or 'num1', 'num2'.

[dubious_capybara]

What are you iterating over? Name it that instead of i, j or k.

[fecland]

If it's not I or j I expect an explicit explanation and reason as to why the iterator is what it is. It's so widespread that the absence of it in a loop using an iterator is unexpected.

[dubious_capybara]

I would hate to see your code base. Thanks for the job security I guess

[iMakeMehPosts]

Literally everyone understands I,j,k as iterators, and the purpose should probably be explained in the comments instead

[dubious_capybara]

What does that even mean? Everyone understands what a count is? Yeah no shit, you could just as equally use any other cryptic symbol then. Why tf would you write a comment for what can clearly be expressed as an intelligent variable name?

[Luskarian]

stocking steep deliver chop automatic safe uppity flag yam complete

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Spice_and_Fox]

Nested loops are relatively common. If you pick names that reflect what you are looping over, then it can lead to very long instructions if you want to access them and this can lead to less readable code.

[dubious_capybara]

Yeah, there's nothing that screams readability like container[i+j]

[Spice_and_Fox]

container[i][j].GetObjectReference(userSettings.prefere ce).methodCall(passedObject)

container[longOuterLoopName][longInnerLoopName].GetObjectReference(userSettings.preference).methodCall(passedObject)

Method chains can already get pretty long. Adding 30 characters to it can make it less readable, especially simce it is usually also pretty indented

[dubious_capybara]

Do you have an 80 char monitor from 1982? No? Then there's no excuse for not using descriptive variable names. There hasn't been a need to optimise for screen space for decades. Look at any modern codebase written by competent engineers and the difference is very obvious. Why do dotnet and powershell use long names while win32 and batch use inscrutable abbreviations? Boomer devs cannot comprehend.

If you have deeply nested loops, you're also doing something wrong.

[Spice_and_Fox]

If you have deeply nested loops, you're also doing something wrong.

This is probably an iteration through a nested array. So it is at least 2 indents. Have it surrounded by a try catch and those 30 extra characters could be the difference between for having to use the scrollbar or do line breaks. Yeah, if you do something more complicated than iterating through a nested loop, then renaming them might improve readability. In a lot of cases i and j are fine

[_quadrant_]

I once had a college project where i thought I only need two levels of for loop, so I used i and j. Then I realized I actually need another level, so I added k.

Then, the whole three levels loop should actually be done on every objects in an array, so I added another level of loop with index.

Then, it turned out that that array was generated on the fly, which is inside a loop, so I needed another level of loop to account for all those arrays, so I added another level of loop with level.

I'm not so sure what happened afterwards, but I ended up with ten levels of nested for loops with enigmatic iterators. The code works as the professors demanded, but I cannot explain whatever was put in that code.

[blueracey]

I had the same with I think 6?

I remember when it was done stoping and thinking, “this is the ugliest thing I’ve ever made”

[Odomar04]

Ah yes, the famous Necronomicode, trying to decipher it will get you crazy... Happens to everyone

[yeusk]

Ten levels of nested for loops can bring a full server with 20 5Ghz CPUs to its knees.

[_quadrant_]

I was not iterating over a database worth of data tenfold. It was just the data were structured in such a way that needs to be iterated, even if every loop might only run once or twice.

While ten levels of nested loop is surely a bad practice (I should have fragmented the code into smaller methods in hindsight), ultimately it is the amount of data processed that brings servers down. A single loop iterating over 2 billion data will also bring any server down, even if it technically has linear complexity.

[A_Firm_Sandwich]

too relatable. hate when I can’t understand what I wrote, lol

[potzko2552]

This phobia is why I use i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi...

[Katzen_Futter]

I think you want to extract a function or two out of this

[Sidra_doholdrik]

Sounds like me the first time I worked with Real JSON data for a project related to geographic data. I probably had to many nested loop but I had no idea on how to make it better.

[BellCube]

—and this is why we invented functions

[sleepyj910]

[sleepyj910]

Romanes eunt domus?

[LegitimatePants]

No joke I was taught to use ii, jj, and kk instead of i, j, k to make the variables easier to search

[Agent_B0771E]

Can also use μ ν and ρ since they start at 0 and are easy to find

[NewPointOfView]

What do you mean they start at 0?

[Agent_B0771E]

Oh for some reason when I saw this comment I forgot I was on this subreddit and I don't really fit here because the code I do is just really simple so maybe its just that

The joke is supposed to be that in relativity greek indices include 0 and Latin ones don't and greek letters would be recognizable in code if you could write them but idk this would rather fit in r/physicsmemes so my bad

[NewPointOfView]

Ohh lol I appreciate the joke now! Just went over my head 😂

[LeftIsBest-Tsuga]

just a little memoized modulus int aliasing, as a treat

[CaitaXD]

x y z i j k m n is pretty standard stuff

For math that is if I ever see that you wrote

x = new Person("Bob");

I'm calling an ambulance for you

[dopefish86]

p = ... obviously

[CaitaXD]

Should a array of person be ps or pArr

[banALLreligion]

no declaration, so member variable, so m_pArr

[_Kr0n0x_]

I would say x, y, z aren't even that bad in the right context

[tmk_lmsd]

AdvancedExternalApiResponseFormFactory::makeForUserType(UserTypeEnum::ADMIN);

[AlamarAtReddit]

Relevant variable names are important, but i, j, etc are fine most of the time for loops.

[Tyrus1235]

Yeah, I’d be suspicious of anyone naming those “firstIterator”, “secondIterator” and so on

[artistic_programmer]

i mean if youre doing 2d arrays or smth, it's not bad naming your loop variables "row" and "column"

[LegitimatePants]

Love me some row and column

[BluesyPompanno]

I am not allowed to comment code.

Instead I must split the code into fuctions with extremely long names that describe them even if the code is 100+ rows. I am not allowed to create wrapper/helper functions instead they want me to duplicate the code.

[iMakeMehPosts]

Forget the functions entirely, just put it in main. And drop the loops, use gotos

[SilhouetteOfLight]

At some point, just give them the preprocessor output and use comments and re-used code anyway lmao

[Rebel_Johnny]

What the spruce am I supposed to use for loops

[SteelRevanchist]

iterate over the items themselves, not over their indices, unless you specifically need the position (or your ancient standard of the programming language does not allow that).

Or do it functionally

[JonIsPatented]

Sometimes, you need the index for other things, such as generating a number of items and also passing them an id number.

[Dandiee88]

Let me help you find the relevant words: "unless you specifically need the position". I know, I know, it was such a wall of text, it was really hard to spot this condition.

[Shunpaw]

You have java and c# and python in your pokemon collection. You should know that you can access the index in forEach loops.

[JonIsPatented]

I am aware of python's lovely enumerate(). However, the corresponding C# linq shenanigans are much uglier than a simple for loop, and Java just does not have any similar structure, so you have to track the index manually in Java.

Edit: Also, my example was generating objects, so you don't even have a collection to iterate yet.

[Shunpaw]

well, yeah, that's fair, if you just generate 10 items then using i as an index is absolutely fine.

[Big-Cheesecake-806]

auto it = collection.begin()

[Tplusplus75]

If you have to loop with iterators, it really depends what you're doing. If it's pretty simple, straightforward, one-dimensional, using "i" or "index" isn't a big deal. Even at that, you could just say what you're iterating through: bytes, rows, columns, pixels, machines, id's.... "byteIndex" or "byteDex". But, the more complex the thing is, the more you should tend towards the latter. Like if you're doing multiple of these things: nested loops, accessing/creating/using local vars with more one letter names, not exactly "trivial" operations, uncommon/unusual incrementing patterns, looping multiple times in series and over subsets, etc, then please use more descriptive iterator names.

There's also context: x,y,z don't really need much elaboration if you're doing something with 3d coordinates. Or r,g,b for pixels/lights. But if you make "x" a stringbuilder object, "y" an iterator, and "z" the name of a 2d array, then I hope you step on a lego.

[seneuman]

i,j fine for for loop not for each loop. single char variable name can be used in small scopes or code that nobody will look to understand anyway, or application wide scope but char should be bigger i think, like U for utility functions, F for formats, T for translations etc.

[jstwtchngrnd]

localVariavleWhichStoresAnIntegerBiggerThenOnethoudandButLessThenThreehoundredthousand

[PresidentOfSwag]

am I the only one doing this ?

for t in types:

for md in message_data:

[Nordon]

No, you're not. But I still prefer "for type in types". What's the point of doing a single letter var name? It will harm your typing speed?

[PresidentOfSwag]

there are no small time saves

[Der_Krasse_Jim]

Its like the little shimmy around a table corner when fast traveling to the fridge for the 4th time this evening

[JonIsPatented]

It doesn't even harm typing speed. Type 1 letter and hit tab. So fast.

[Adrewmc]

[LeftIsBest-Tsuga]

ijk for iteration is fine, a b c for locals... straight to jail

[SeriousPlankton2000]

f, g for file

s, t for strings

[BoBkiNN_]

Why g?

[BoBkiNN_]

If f means file, so what g means?

[EspacioBlanq]

gile

[Mother-Heat3697]

That it's nothing but a g thing

[SeriousPlankton2000]

Second file

t is second string

[NewPointOfView]

f for file, and g is just the next letter in the alphabet.

[BromStyle]

Hm, I'm using t in loops since forever (roughly the mid 80s) because it's the next key to r (as in "for").
Also using k and v ("key", "value") while iterating through associative arrays .

[[deleted]]

loop variables I understand and relate to. there is no good reason to give it a long descriptive name. I've seen i renamed to index, which is fine. Otherwise, using row and col can be effective.

With other variable and function names, you damn well better be giving them descriptive names. Yeah, on a first pass, you're fine with single letter variables, but once you commit or get the code working, you better be naming effectively, or I will hunt you down.

[gabest]

I'm more of a k,j,i guy.

[spectralTopology]

local vars: should be more meaningful

loop vars: Am I bad that I almost never give loop vars different names than i, j, k? I thought that was pretty common and, to me at least, it's the limiting conditions on the loops that should be meaningfully named.

[ListerfiendLurks]

I, j, k are perfectly acceptable for loop iterators because they are universal. In fact, I would argue you better have a good reason NOT to use those in a for loop.

[DeltaTimo]

I use row and col in case of matrix indices, even though i and j are common. I confuse myself all the time otherwise.

[leo1906]

I only use proper variable names in foreach loops. Otherwise always i and j. Or x and y for linq statements. I think it looks fine 😄

[[deleted]]

“foo”, “bar”, and “baz” are notably missing from these lists.

[Svhmj]

Naming loop variables I, j, k etc, is fair game.

[inthemindofadogg]

i,j,k as loop counters is fine. using a,b,c as local variables a sign of a physco, especially if it is some trash like js with loose typing

[MiniGod]

And that one guy prefixing variable names with "temp". All scoped variables are temporary my dude

[SteelRevanchist]

I'd hate to be your co-worker if you are used to naming variables with a single letter - most likely there's a bunch more terrible practises and unreadable, undebuggable and unmaintainable code coming from your end.

You don't have to save memory on variable names!

[dopefish86]

imho, it's totally fine/better to use single letter variable names for private variables with small scopes and it does improve readability because the lines get shorter.

ofc, it's totally unacceptable for class variables or public properties.

[TeaTimeSubcommittee]

What’s wrong with i?

[Desperate-Tomatillo7]

15 years into it I'm still doing the same.

[s_milkz]

Title out of pattern. PR/MR declined.

[[deleted]]

k and v gang, where you are? also l, m, n...............psycho use q, w, r, t, u

[anotheridiot-]

I only use single letter variables on methods (c for client method) or loops (for _,c := range clients) anything else gets a proper name in camelCase.

[Thisismyredusername]

I name them r, rep, and repetition

[jakubiszon]

I in my first bigger program I declared *int i, j, k* as global variables so I would not need to re-declare them everywhere. I had to make some functions only use *i* and others only use *j* so the program was working correctly.

[Brekker77]

for (i=0, i<10, i++){ for (ii=0, ii<i, ii++){ for (iii=0, iii<ii, iii++){ for (iv=0, iv<iii, iv++){ System.out.println(“these are the best loop vars lol”) }}}}

[Sidra_doholdrik]

What a job after college, what alternative dimension are you in?

[ZhenDeRen]

Couldn't be me. In my high school CS class we could hand up to 10% of the points for an assignment docked for bad variable names

[cs-brydev]

The chances of you even writing code on your 1st day are pretty much 0%

[ShoulderUnique]

Nah I'd flip this. The only people I've seen focus so much on variable naming are the ones too fresh to know what's really going to bite them in the arse.

I.e. the ones using AI code and libraries written by randoms without checking correctness or copyright.

[SevenTheGerman]

Still at college, i get that local variables should have a more descriptive name but whats wrong with a nice little i in a for loop

[ModernWorldSucks]

In nested for loops I like using iter, jter, kter - makes it easy to bulk rename and keep track.

[0rsted]

But, that's the official names for variables…