How do you PEP 8-name a class whose name is an acronym?

python coding-style naming-conventions
Escualo picture Escualo · May 18, 2010 · Viewed 14.7k times · Source

I try to adhere to the style guide for Python code (also known as PEP 8). Accordingly, the preferred way to name a class is using CamelCase:

Almost without exception, class names use the CapWords convention. Classes for internal use have a leading underscore in addition.

How can I be consistent with PEP 8 if my class name is formed by two acronyms (which in proper English should be capitalized). For instance, if my class name was 'NASA JPL', what would you name it?:

class NASAJPL():  # 1
class NASA_JPL(): # 2
class NasaJpl():  # 3

I am using #1, but it looks weird; #3 looks weird too, and #2 seems to violate PEP 8.

Answer

Dan Head picture Dan Head · May 18, 2010

PEP-8 does cover this (at least partially):

Note: When using abbreviations in CapWords, capitalize all the letters of the abbreviation. Thus HTTPServerError is better than HttpServerError.

Which I would read to mean that NASAJPL() is the recommended name according to PEP-8.

Personally I'd find NasaJpl() the easiest to scan since the upper case letters easily mark word boundaries and give the name a distinctive shape.

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