Lab 5: General Importance Style Conventions/Advice

Based on observing student's code in recent lectures and today's lab, Prof. Lyn would like to emphasize the following about generalk coding style guidelines for the course, as well as some guidelines specific to loops.

Familiarize yourself with the Code Style Guide

Especially if you're not familiar with it already, you should frequently consult the Code Style Guide for general guidelines about coding style for the course

General Naming Guidelines for Parameters and Local Variables

In general, you should avoid very short (especially single-letter) or otherwise unhelpful parameter and local variable names. There are a few exceptions: it's sometimes OK to use single-letter variable names (or single letters followed by a digit) in cases where the letter implies a type (but longer names are often more helpful). For example:

i, j, k for integers, especially indices (but ind or index is better for indices)
f, g for floats
n, m for other numbers (but num is typically better)
s and t for strings (but st, str, or string is typically better)
c for a single-character string (though ch an char are typically better)
b for booleans (but variants of bool are better)
L for lists. (Use an uppercase L rather than a lowercase l, which can be hard to distinguish from the digit 1. But variants of lst or list are typically better.
For dictionaries, use variants of dct or dict.
For tuples, use variants of tpl.

Note it's often OK to use type names like int, str, bool, list, dict (and variants thereof) also as parameter or local variable names. But you do need to be careful not to shadow another use of these name in your context. E.g., you can't use int, str, list, etc. as a funtion parameter if you also want to call them as built-in functions in the function body!

Specific Naming Guidlines for Sequences and Loops

When naming a list, either use a plural noun (e.g., nums, strings, words, etc.) or a single noun followed by List (e.g. numList, stringList, wordList).
In a for loop, using a singular noun (or variant thereof) that's related to the sequence name. E.g.:
```
for num in nums:

for val in valList:

for word1 in  wordList:
```
This makes it very easy to connect the element to the sequence, but at the same time keep them distinct!
- Some common special cases:
```
for index in range(...):

for char in string:

for letter in word:
```
When naming an accumulation variable, either use a generic name like result, answer, ans, or something that's more specific to the type or purpose of the variable (e.g. count, sum, sumSoFar, newString, numVowels, etc. Prof. Lyn particularly likes the suffix SoFar because it emphasizes that the value is changing over time.
Similarly, tracking variables and other local variables should be given helpful names, like prev (or prevNum, etc.), next, ...
- for variables with a boolean value, give them a name that makes this obvious, e.g., isPositive, isPrevCharASpace, didBreak, etc.

Lab 5: General Importance Style Conventions/Advice

Familiarize yourself with the Code Style Guide

General Naming Guidelines for Parameters and Local Variables

Specific Naming Guidlines for Sequences and Loops

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