Expert Python Programming - Second Edition

Class names

The name of a class has to be concise, precise, so that it is sufficient to understand from it what the class does. A common practice is to use a suffix that informs about its type or nature, for example:

• SQLEngine
• MimeTypes
• StringWidget
• TestCase

For base or abstract classes, a Base or Abstract prefix can be used as follows:

• BaseCookie
• AbstractFormatter

The most important thing is to be consistent with the class attributes. For example, try to avoid redundancy between the class and its attributes' names:

>>> SMTP.smtp_send()  # redundant information in the namespace
>>> SMTP.send()       # more readable and mnemonic