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Funny variable names

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  • W wizardzz

    It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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    Alan Burkhart
    wrote on last edited by
    #41

    I downloaded some code a few years ago in which all the buttons in the interface had names like buttGo, buttSort, buttYes, buttNo...

    Everybody SHUT UP until I finish my coffee...

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    • S Slice24

      A colleague of mine used a variable called tibet. Once he was finished with the variable, he was then able to free(tibet)

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      Joan Dineiro
      wrote on last edited by
      #42

      I had a collegue who had to write a credit app program. They named the database table CRAP and the columns in the table were all like CRAP_descript, CRAP_Type, etc. The boss made them rename everything. Bosses have no sense of humor

      JodiYoda

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      • J jimgale

        I had a coworker who named variables after Egyptian Gods - based on the code intention's personality (matching the gods). Ra, Hathor, Isis, Anubis. [Personally I think of Stargate with these names]. But she knew their histories well. It's harder to get any more abstract and removed from the real semantic meaning of the variable than that.

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        agolddog
        wrote on last edited by
        #43

        Similarly, I once worked for a firm where the servers were all Vegas casinos: MandalayBay, Venetian, etc, and the developer machines were all games: CaribbeanStud, Blackjack, etc. Not such a bad thing in a small shop, but it took a while to get up to remembering who was what.

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        • W wizardzz

          It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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          Steve Poulter
          wrote on last edited by
          #44

          I once had to deal with some MS-Basic code written by a bored kid who amused himself with variable names including:

          dim eieio

          (Think Old MacDonald...)

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          • S Stefan_Lang

            Well in your case it was just a matter of misreading, but in our application, some of the older code that used hungarian style names (i. e. names consisting of one or more abbreviated words) is consistently using the fragment 'anal' to denote something to do with 'analysis'. :doh:

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            JasonPSage
            wrote on last edited by
            #45

            So..everything in that system .... ahhaha

            Know way too many languages... master of none!

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            • W wizardzz

              It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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              Tony Wright UK
              wrote on last edited by
              #46

              My favourite is a variable to hold the current time - SecsNow.

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              • W wizardzz

                It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                Richard Hylton
                wrote on last edited by
                #47

                Not sure this is funny. Quite sure that it amused my small mind. I was working on a Purchase Order project and somehow variables ended up being named c3PO and extensions of that name.

                RHYlton

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                • W wizardzz

                  It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                  programmervb netc
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #48

                  yorn What is that you ask...... Yes or No....dumb We also have a set of classes we call the blue classes because they all start with smrf. Bad thing is the little smurfs keep multiplying. Humble Programmer

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                  • P programmervb netc

                    yorn What is that you ask...... Yes or No....dumb We also have a set of classes we call the blue classes because they all start with smrf. Bad thing is the little smurfs keep multiplying. Humble Programmer

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                    wizardzz
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #49

                    Much like many engineering departments, there is only one female smurf. She must be quite busy if they are multiplying.

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                    • D Daniel Tak M

                      When I can't come up with a good name for a class, I sometimes ask a colleague (not a coder) for help... that's why there's a class called "ChiefCommander" in one of my projects (the class administrates many major parts of the app).

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                      Br Bill
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #50

                      I worked on a build system for a company's huge software project. It had many options, and the variables inside the script files stored parameters for the build. For some reason, the variable names never exceeded 10 characters. For example, PROF_TOOL could contain the name of one of 3 different profiling tools, depending on the software language and version. In addition to PROF_TOOL, there were also: ARCH_TOOL - name of archiver COMP_TOOL - compiler LINK_TOOL - linker and my favorite, the code analysis tool : ANAL_TOOL . Everybody else at the company always spoke it to rhyme with "canal tool", but I took immature joy in always pronouncing it exactly the way it looks. "So which ANAL_TOOL were you using when you encountered the problem?" I'm a jerk.

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                      • W wizardzz

                        It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                        ghle
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #51

                        wizardzz wrote:

                        have any examples

                        Financial software, Asset Manager = AssMgr In the old days (64KB was a lot), we had a program overlay on RAM that could reconfigure our machine tool software tables that resided in the RAM. The overlay program was call the Configurator. It was possible to reconfigure the system so that the RAM tables grew so large that they expanded into the Executive program area. We needed a flag for that, so that we could crash the executive program gracefully upon reload, instead of a run-away program. Name of the flag, of course, was FCEM 'Figurator Crashed Executive Memory. Yes, the FCEM flag (hard C, aka K). If it ever was TRUE, well, you were f....d. :-O

                        Gary

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                        • S ScottM1

                          But then what would he call his SQLExceptions?

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                          meaningoflights
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #52

                          sexual exceptions... At previous workplace there was a guy named Ray. A couple of us were looking at this weird stored proc and we kept on saying: "WTF is this Raise Error" "bloody Raise error is the cause of all our problems" He eventually stormed over and YELLS - "WHAT THE FUCK ITS NOT MY ERROR!"

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                          • W wizardzz

                            It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                            kxal
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #53

                            well,I really think naming a varible is difficult,especially in a large project.It always takes me a lot of time to find out a meaningful name,and I often worried about whether I name two varibles the same name.

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                            • P Pete OHanlon

                              Not exactly funny, but I knew a developer who named a SocketException variable sex.

                              I have CDO, it's OCD with the letters in the right order; just as they ruddy well should be

                              Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads

                              My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Onyx

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                              ksdhulipala
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #54

                              I did that in my recent code inadvertently and no wants to discuss that part in code review

                              Krishna ----------------------------------------------- VP:" This is an attrition time. The work is huge. If we do not complete in time, we will be paying huge penalty. Take all the resources you want, recruit or take people from other departments and complete the work in 25 days." Manager: (Humbly) "Sir, give me one wife and nine months and I shall show you results.Don't give me nine wives and one month, I cannot do anything." The VP just walked away

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                              • W wizardzz

                                It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                                David Snow
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #55

                                As I sit here reading this there is an ad just below ehhorting me to try some product called Aspose. Hmmm.. Is this for real?

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                                • W wizardzz

                                  It just happened to me now. Following a legacy naming convention my class had an object named pipTable, then I added feedTable, and now poolTable. I know it's not really funny, but when I'm coding and see variable names form something meaningful, it makes me :). I know this has happened to me many times before, occasionally causing me to reconsider the convention when the name becomes R or even X rated. Does anyone else have any examples or funny stories to add?

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                                  P0110X
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #56

                                  it happens to me a lot because I mix spanish and english... english for prefixes like get, set, delete... and spanish for business objects. A friend some weeks ago wrote something like GetFacturasByFecha (which means GetBillsByDate) kinda funny when someone else checks it and tries to understand what were the developer thinking to write something like that xD

                                  _class MySignature _{ __public override void toString() __{ ____return "hi ;)"; __} _}

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                                  • L Lost User

                                    COMIC is: a person who tells jokes, aka comedian. a child (or adult)'s magazine containing strip cartoons something that is supposed to be serious but makes people laugh inadvertently so a piece of software called COMIC is asking for trouble.

                                    Just say 'NO' to evaluated arguments for diadic functions! Ash

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                                    W Balboos GHB
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #57

                                    A bit off topic, but the same idea on a grander scale: There once was a vehicle from Chevrolet call the Nova - named after an exploding star to most of us . . . . . . but, in Latin America, the car just wouldn't sell . . . Because, in Spanish, Nova is read "No Va", which translates to Won't Go (literally, No Go). Did someone say oops ?

                                    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                                    "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                                    "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek dissappointment. If you are searching for perfection in yourself, then you seek failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                                    • W W Balboos GHB

                                      A bit off topic, but the same idea on a grander scale: There once was a vehicle from Chevrolet call the Nova - named after an exploding star to most of us . . . . . . but, in Latin America, the car just wouldn't sell . . . Because, in Spanish, Nova is read "No Va", which translates to Won't Go (literally, No Go). Did someone say oops ?

                                      "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                                      "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                                      "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek dissappointment. If you are searching for perfection in yourself, then you seek failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                                      Lost User
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #58

                                      GM did the same thing in Europe with the Vauxhal Nova (allegedly).

                                      Just say 'NO' to evaluated arguments for diadic functions! Ash

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                                      • D Daniel Tak M

                                        When I can't come up with a good name for a class, I sometimes ask a colleague (not a coder) for help... that's why there's a class called "ChiefCommander" in one of my projects (the class administrates many major parts of the app).

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        Johann Gerell
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #59

                                        Tak wrote:

                                        ChiefCommander

                                        a.k.a. "God".

                                        Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel

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