Choose meaningful names that describe what the variable is being used for. Avoid generic names like number or temp whenever their purpose is not absolutely clear.

Compose variable names using mixed case letters starting with a lower case letter. For example, use salesOrder rather than SalesOrder or sales_order.

Use plural names for arrays. For example, use testScores instead of testScore.

Exception: for loop counter variables are often named simply i, j, or k, and declared local to the for loop whenever possible.

	for (int i = 0; i < MAX_TEMPERATURE; i++) {
	  boilingPoint = boilingPoint + 1;
	}
      

These conventions are common practice in the Java development community and also the naming convention for variables used by Sun for the Java core packages. Writing code that follows these conventions makes variables easy for others to distinguish from other types. They are also increasingly used in C++ and C code.

	day = (3 + numberOfDays) % 7; // NO! uses literal numbers

	static final int WEDNESDAY = 3;
	static final int DAYS_IN_WEEK = 7;

	day = (WEDNESDAY + numberOfDays) % DAYS_IN_WEEK; // Yes, self-documenting
      

Try to come up with meaningful method names that succinctly describe the purpose of the method, making your code self-documenting and reducing the need for additional comments.

Compose method names using mixed-case letters, beginning with a lower case letter and starting each subsequent word with an upper case letter.

Begin method names with a strong action verb (for example, deposit). If the verb is not descriptive enough by itself, include a noun (for example, addInterest). Add adjectives if necessary to clarify the noun (for example, convertToAustralianDollars).

Use the prefixes get and set for getter and setter methods. Getter functions merely return the value of a variable; setter functions change the value of a variable. For example, use the method names getBalance and setBalance to access or change the variable balance.

If the method returns a boolean value, use is or has as the prefix for the method name. For example, use isOverdrawn or hasCreditLeft for methods that return true or false values. Avoid the use of the word not in the boolean method name, use the ! operator instead. For example, use !isOverdrawn() instead of isNotOverdrawn().

These conventions are common practice. Writing code that follows these conventions makes methods easy for others to identify. Even though variables and methods both begin with a lower-case letter followed by mixed case, they can easily be differentiated from each other because method names begin with a verb and always are immediately followed with a set of parenthesis, for example: moveAccount().

Class names are always written in mixed case like method names, but begin with an upper-case letter.

By analogy, typedefs of structured types should be named in the same way.

In C, structs and enums are typically named in all-lowercase, ending with _t. However, you will usually want to typedef such types.

A case could be made for naming typedefs of non-structured types according to C-style conventions, to distinguish them from structured types. However, I feel it increases readability greatly if all typedef names begin with an upper-case letter, to distinguish them from variable names:

class SomeClass { … };

typedef struct node_t {
  void *content;
  struct node_t *next;
} Node;

typedef enum season_t { SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER } Season;