Bangalore MySQL User Group Meet Up October 11, 2009 MySQL Naming Conventions Sudheer Satyanarayana http://techchorus.net http://binaryvibes.co.in

Why? Readability Maintainability Reduced development costs

Readability

Maintainability

Reduced development costs

First Things First Avoid Reserved words Look up the Manual Write a policy One size doesn't fit all

Avoid Reserved words

Look up the Manual

Write a policy

One size doesn't fit all

Case Sensitivity All lower case: user_type All upper case: USER_TYPE Camel case: userType Mixed case: UserType Be consistent Avoid inconsistent usage like user_type, productType

All lower case: user_type

All upper case: USER_TYPE

Camel case: userType

Mixed case: UserType

Databases To prefix or not? mydb or myprefix_mydb You may not have an option You may not want to disclose the database name

To prefix or not? mydb or myprefix_mydb

You may not have an option

You may not want to disclose the database name

Tables To prefix or not? Mytable vs myprefix_mytable Avoid generic prefixes like tbl_user Case sensitivity matters Plural or singular? user vs users Acronyms vs descriptive names Avoid too long or two short names myprefix_user_preferences_type vs user_pref_type

To prefix or not? Mytable vs myprefix_mytable

Avoid generic prefixes like tbl_user

Case sensitivity matters

Plural or singular? user vs users

Acronyms vs descriptive names

Avoid too long or two short names

myprefix_user_preferences_type vs

user_pref_type

Columns Suffixing _id to indexed key – user_id vs uid vs id Beware of reserved words – timestamp, when Self explanatory foreign key name Table contact: contact_id, PK user_id REFERENCES user_id of user

Suffixing _id to indexed key – user_id vs uid vs id

Beware of reserved words – timestamp, when

Self explanatory foreign key name

Table contact: contact_id, PK user_id REFERENCES user_id of user

Benefits More readable Maintainable Avoid deployment problems Reduced development costs

More readable

Maintainable

Avoid deployment problems

Reduced development costs

Tip See what established projects are doing

Thank you