Naming Conventions In Go Language

File name

• The main entry point file of the application should be named as main.go or same as the application. For example, the entry point file of Gogs is named gogs.go.

Functions and Methods

• If the main purpose of functions or methods is returning a bool type value, the name of function or method should starts with Has, Is, Can or Allow, etc.

   func HasPrefix(name string, prefixes []string) bool { ... }
   func IsEntry(name string, entries []string) bool { ... }
   func CanManage(name string) bool { ... }
   func AllowGitHook() bool { ... }

• A name must begin with a letter, and can have any number of additional letters and numbers.

• A function name cannot start with a number.

• A function name cannot contain spaces.

• If the functions with names that start with an uppercase letter will be exported to other packages. If the function name starts with a lowercase letter, it won't be exported to other packages, but you can call this function within the same package.

• If a name consists of multiple words, each word after the first should be capitalized like this: empName, EmpAddress, etc.

• Function names are case-sensitive (car, Car and CAR are three different variables).

Constants

• Constant should use all capital letters and use underscore _ to separate words.

   const APP_VER = "0.7.0.1110 Beta"

• If you need enumerated type, you should define the corresponding type first:

   type Scheme string
  
   const (
   	HTTP  Scheme = "http"
   	HTTPS Scheme = "https"
   )

• If functionality of the module is relatively complicated and easy to mixed up with constant name, you can add prefix to every constant:

   type PullRequestStatus int
  
   const (
   	PULL_REQUEST_STATUS_CONFLICT PullRequestStatus = iota
   	PULL_REQUEST_STATUS_CHECKING
   	PULL_REQUEST_STATUS_MERGEABLE
   )

Variables

• A variable name should always start with a letter or an undescore character.

• A variable name should follow general English expression or shorthand.

• Names can have unicode characters.

• In relatively simple (less objects and more specific) context, variable name can use simplified form as follows:

  • user to u
  • userID to uid

• If variable type is bool, its name should start with Has, Is, Can or Allow, etc.

   var isExist bool
   var hasConflict bool
   var canManage bool
   var allowGitHook bool

• The last rule also applies for defining structs:

   // Webhook represents a web hook object.
   type Webhook struct {
   	ID           int64 `xorm:"pk autoincr"`
   	RepoID       int64
   	OrgID        int64
   	URL          string `xorm:"url TEXT"`
   	ContentType  HookContentType
   	Secret       string `xorm:"TEXT"`
   	Events       string `xorm:"TEXT"`
   	*HookEvent   `xorm:"-"`
   	IsSSL        bool `xorm:"is_ssl"`
   	IsActive     bool
   	HookTaskType HookTaskType
   	Meta         string     `xorm:"TEXT"` // store hook-specific attributes
   	LastStatus   HookStatus // Last delivery status
   	Created      time.Time  `xorm:"CREATED"`
   	Updated      time.Time  `xorm:"UPDATED"`
   }

Variable Naming Convention

Variable name is generally using Camel Case style, but when you have unique nouns, should apply following rules:

• If the variable is private, and the unique noun is the first word, then use lower cases, e.g. apiClient.
• Otherwise, use the original cases for the unique noun, e.g. APIClient, repoID, UserID.

Here is a list of words which are commonly identified as unique nouns:

// A GonicMapper that contains a list of common initialisms taken from golang/lint
var LintGonicMapper = GonicMapper{
	"API":   true,
	"ASCII": true,
	"CPU":   true,
	"CSS":   true,
	"DNS":   true,
	"EOF":   true,
	"GUID":  true,
	"HTML":  true,
	"HTTP":  true,
	"HTTPS": true,
	"ID":    true,
	"IP":    true,
	"JSON":  true,
	"LHS":   true,
	"QPS":   true,
	"RAM":   true,
	"RHS":   true,
	"RPC":   true,
	"SLA":   true,
	"SMTP":  true,
	"SSH":   true,
	"TLS":   true,
	"TTL":   true,
	"UI":    true,
	"UID":   true,
	"UUID":  true,
	"URI":   true,
	"URL":   true,
	"UTF8":  true,
	"VM":    true,
	"XML":   true,
	"XSRF":  true,
	"XSS":   true,
}