unclear-name.md

Unclear Name

What It Looks Like

irec = zadd(raw)

Why It Hurts

When names are opaque, ambiguous, or unspecific, you can't tell what effect your changes to the code might have.

How To Fix It

Use Rename Variable and Rename Method.

Here's a better version of the code above:

index_record = ensure_null_byte_at_end(raw_index)

Caveats

Beware of fixing this smell too early. When you're uncertain about what code is actually doing, giving it a confident-sounding (but inaccurate) name can mislead future readers of the code. See Arlo Belshee's post "Good Naming Is a Process, Not a Single Step" for more.