I find snake_case easier to read because people naturally read words separated by spaces. For example, "imagineThisWord" seems harder to scan than "imagine_this_word." Is this preference purely subjective, or are there naming practices that are arguably better for readability but less common because a programming language has its own established conventions?
4 Answers
Snake_case is readable, but it takes more effort to type because the underscore usually requires the Shift key. That is one reason camelCase and PascalCase are popular. Snake_case is still common for constants and in languages such as Python, while kebab-case often appears where a specification requires it.
A lot of this comes down to familiarity. Some people find snake_case easier to scan, while others read camelCase more naturally because they have seen it for years. Neither is universally more readable, so adapting to the language or project convention is usually the practical choice.
I prefer snake_case in some contexts, especially for filenames, but I choose based on the project. The important thing is to use one convention consistently and avoid mixing styles without a clear reason.
Naming style usually depends on the language and project. Different conventions can also help distinguish functions, classes, constants, and other kinds of identifiers. Whatever style you use, consistency matters most—especially when working with a team or contributing to an existing codebase.
That makes sense. I can see how the surrounding code and the language’s conventions would make a different style feel more natural over time.