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What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?

by gregor42 (Parson)
on Oct 01, 2014 at 09:46 UTC ( [id://1102521]=poll: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Vote on this poll

foo
[bar] 202/52%
bar
[bar] 11/3%
baz
[bar] 7/2%
qux
[bar] 2/1%
quux
[bar] 4/1%
grault
[bar] 1/0%
garply
[bar] 1/0%
waldo
[bar] 13/3%
fred
[bar] 21/5%
plugh
[bar] 2/1%
xyzzy
[bar] 16/4%
thud
[bar] 7/2%
other
[bar] 98/25%
385 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Tux (Canon) on Oct 01, 2014 at 09:58 UTC

    What is wrong with the good old-fashioned $x, $xx, $y, $z, $zz, $z0, … </duck>


    Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

      Those aren't meta-syntactic if they are used in real code :-)

      --MidLifeXis

        ++MidLifeXis, it's 5:30am here and that comment made me smile :-)
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by GotToBTru (Prior) on Oct 01, 2014 at 12:46 UTC

    Definitely other. I use foo and bar as the values. The variables are $customer_name, %hash, $hashref or @array.

    1 Peter 4:10
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Old_Gray_Bear (Bishop) on Oct 01, 2014 at 14:32 UTC
    I've always been fond of 'twiddle' and 'twiddly'

    ----
    I Go Back to Sleep, Now.

    OGB

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by LanX (Saint) on Oct 01, 2014 at 09:50 UTC
  • bla
  • blub

    update
  • $var
  • @array
  • %hash
  • &func
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by roboticus (Chancellor) on Oct 01, 2014 at 11:25 UTC

    Back when I started coding in BASIC, it was Q9. Now it's the set foo, bar, baz, fubar, xyzzy, plove, plugh and cretin.

    ...roboticus

    When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Oct 06, 2014 at 13:19 UTC

    I actually have a collection of favorites depending on context. One of my perennial favorites is:

    # hand wavium prior to this line my %een=(); # keep track of values we have already seen @rray = grep !$een{$_}++ sort @rray;
    actually there are two in there. I frequently use @rray for a throw away array.

    Others include $tring, $thing, $that (extra $this),$tatus and many more.


    Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
    Peter -at- Berghold -dot- Net; Blog: http://blog.berghold.net Warning: No political correctness allowed.
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by jonadab (Parson) on Oct 01, 2014 at 12:01 UTC

    I like quux because you can add arbitrarily many companion variables simply by inserting another extra u.

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Anonymous Monk on Oct 01, 2014 at 22:13 UTC
    I like to use narf, poit and troz from Pinky and the Brain.
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by no_slogan (Deacon) on Oct 02, 2014 at 02:55 UTC
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by DrHyde (Prior) on Oct 01, 2014 at 14:22 UTC
    The One True Sequence of meta-syntactic variables is ...
    • foo
    • bar
    • baz
    • barf
    • garbleflux
    • quux
    • quuux
    • ...
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Not_a_Number (Prior) on Oct 01, 2014 at 16:54 UTC

    dave

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by chacham (Prior) on Oct 03, 2014 at 11:51 UTC
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by wrog (Friar) on Oct 03, 2014 at 15:24 UTC
    victim
      what XD i always use $lol or hoha or haha heehaw or something that is quickly quick. but i have never used victims, atleast not in programming :devilface:
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Laurent_R (Canon) on Oct 15, 2014 at 06:24 UTC
    $foo is definitely my favorite, with $bar and $baz coming next.. I am a bit suprised, though, that no one mentionned $i (and its companions, $j and $k, when needed). In French, the most common equivalent is $toto, and, when additional alternates are needed, they may usually be $tata, $tutu and $titi.
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 01, 2014 at 14:58 UTC
    $nose = $cuke;

    «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by talexb (Chancellor) on Oct 06, 2014 at 20:12 UTC

    Good old for once only .. (probably a backronym) ..

    Alex / talexb / Toronto

    Thanks PJ. We owe you so much. Groklaw -- RIP -- 2003 to 2013.

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by gsiems (Deacon) on Oct 01, 2014 at 12:39 UTC
    • $foo ( or sub foo {} )
    • $bar
    • $baz
    • $baggybumbeerbelly
    • @ary
    • %h
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by chacham (Prior) on Oct 01, 2014 at 15:05 UTC

    I tend to use A and B. Why use something longer?

    As it so happens, i added the following comment to a VIEW just this morning:

    -- This causes a problem as ROLLUP adds a record even if it already ex +ists in the data. For example: -- WITH A AS (SELECT NULL A FROM Dual), B AS (SELECT A FROM A GROUP B +Y ROLLUP(A)) SELECT Rownum, A FROM B

        Good point. In that case, i'd probably use my other favorites, moo and cow. :)

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by biohisham (Priest) on Oct 14, 2014 at 05:16 UTC

    blah and blahblah


    A 4 year old monk
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by cursion (Pilgrim) on Oct 15, 2014 at 19:18 UTC
    asdf
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by cavac (Parson) on Dec 17, 2014 at 22:32 UTC

    That would be the trio of bli, bla, and blub

    Although in test-code and designs that are designed to be thrown away, i usually use $mist, $kraffel, und $dreck from my local austrian dialect for garbage. Just as a reminder for myself that the code should neither be released to the public nor used in production. (function names often follow a similar pattern, but their mentioning in PM would probably get me banned).

    "For me, programming in Perl is like my cooking. The result may not always taste nice, but it's quick, painless and it get's food on the table."
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by 1nickt (Canon) on Jun 05, 2021 at 22:43 UTC

    For sets up to four, $foo, $bar, $baz, $qux.

    Next two: $blorgle, $blargle.


    The way forward always starts with a minimal test.
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by pajout (Curate) on Oct 06, 2014 at 15:56 UTC
    Now it seems that 32 % of respondents like $other :)

      it seems that 32 % of respondents like $other

      Methinks you read other wrong. Other is read "the inside or". Compare with "the outside or" or thore.

      Whereas exclusive and non-exclusive ors differentiate between single and double evaluation, allowing for short circuiting in some applications, inside and outside ors explain nested ors.

      For example:

      if (($the == 42 or $other == 17) or ($inside == 1742 or $or == 4217)) {$somethingelse = 'entirely'}

      Although poorly written, this code can be explained as: If the the variable or the other variable from the first inside or, or the inside variable inside the other side of the outside or, or the other or inside the other side of the outside or equal their respective numbers, the code sets something else, entirely.

      However, we can take a different approach with other and thore: If the the or the other other, or the thore's other inside or the other or equal their respective numbers, the code sets something else, entirely.

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by Anonymous Monk on Oct 01, 2014 at 13:26 UTC

    Names are dependents on context ...

    @list = ( 'p' , 'q' ) ; %map = ( @list ); %uniq ; @uniq{ @list } = ();

    ... else, I really like *var types.

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by sweetblood (Prior) on Oct 06, 2014 at 23:11 UTC
    farple

    Sweetblood

Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by fuzzmonkey (Sexton) on Oct 08, 2014 at 22:15 UTC
    $x, @x, %x for me
Re: What is your favourite meta-syntactic variable name?
by ateague (Monk) on Oct 13, 2014 at 19:00 UTC

    Other

    my @chrzaszcz;
    my $zdzblo;

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