What is the naming convention for Python class references
On module level the second:
ReferenceToClass = MyClass
As a function argument, the first:
reference_to_class = MyClass
tl;dr: for global/public names use AllCaps
like XORcist said:
class Logger:
pass
AliasLogger = Logger
For function parameters and function locals, make it clear that you are dealing with the class object with a descriptive name like this:
def some_func(logger_class):
pass
or something along the lines
def some_func(my_class_classobj):
pass
when the word "class"
is actually in your classname. For classobj
, see also class_
and klass
.
Analysis/Motivation (long version)
No thorough reading, but at a glance PEP 8 doesn't seem to be explicit on this (neither google's python style guide for that matter).
Since a variable name is probably just yet-another name binding in python, in my opinion it doesn't really matter whether you bind that name with the definition block or later with the =
equal sign to some object.
For this I agree with XORcist in that module level "alias" references should adhere to your class naming standard, probably AllCaps:
class MyClass(object):
pass
# good
ReferenceToClass = MyClass
However when it comes to parameter and variable names, supposedly lowercase_underscores
should apply, right? I'm unhappy with only that, since it will push you into the instance vs class reference ambiguity. There is the potential that an all-lowercase name may be an attempt to hint the object being an instance. For that matter, I recommend postfixing your all-lowercase, class-referencing variable names with the "class" suffix, like this:
class Logger(object):
pass
def function_expecting_class_reference(logger_class):
pass
I renamed your example class MyClass
to Logger
because in real scenarios only a few class name contains the string "class"
. However in that latter case I propose to avoid the ambiguity with descriptive naming yet again. For example, you may use a classobj
suffix:
class MyClass(object):
pass
def function_expecting_class_reference(another_param, my_class_classobj):
ReferenceToClass = MyClass
Another alternative I tend to take is to use the suffix klass
, like my_class_klass
. Not everyone seems to get the latter, but anyway I'm yet to test whether they would get the former any better.
I treat it the same as an instance variable, which PEP8 defines as using lowercase_underscore_style. (lowercase, with words separated by underscores as necessary to improve readability.)
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#id34