This document outlines common naming conventions used in Go projects. These conventions follow recommendations from Effective Go and widely adopted industry practices.

Naming convention#

  • Standard naming convention followed for variables, functions etc.
  • Any Identifier which starts with a Capital-Case are exported & available outside the defining package.
  • MixedCase is followed i.e
    • camelCase for identifiers (non-exported ones i.e only available within the package)
    • PascalCase for identifiers (exported ones i.e also available outside the package)
// Exported as the first character is capital 'E'.
var ExportedVariable int 

// Non Exported identifier & only accessible within the package.
var nonExportedVariable int

Package Naming Practices#

  • Package names should be:
    • Short
    • Lowercase
    • Single words
    • Descriptive
    • No Underscores, camelCase, PascalCase etc
package http
package json
package user
package auth

Initialisms#

  • Common initialisms should remain fully capitalized.
  • Examples of common initialisms:
    • API, ASCII, CPU, CSS, DNS, EOF, GUID, HTML, HTTP, HTTPS, ID, IP, JSON, LHS, QPS, RAM, RHS, RPC, SLA, SMTP, SQL, SSH, TCP, TLS, TTL, UDP, UI, UID, UUID, URI, URL, UTF8, VM, XML, XSRF, XSS etc.
userID
httpServer
parseJSON
apiClient
userUUID

Constructor Naming Practices#

  • No concept of constructors in golang, Instead constructors follow a naming convention: New<TYPE>.
NewUser
NewClient
NewServer

Interface Naming Practices#

  • Interfaces often end with -er when they describe behaviours.
  • These names describe what the type does, NOT what it is.
Reader
Writer
Closer
Stringer
Logger

Variable Naming Practices#

  • Variable names should be:
    • Short
    • Clear
    • Contextual
count
user
totalPrice

Receiver Naming Practices#

  • Receiver variable names should be short and concise, usually one or two letters.
  • Receiver names should usually be consistent across methods.
func (u *User) save() {}
func (c *Client) serve() {}
func (s *Server) Listen() {}

Constant Naming Practices#

  • Constants follow the same MixedCaps convention.
// Variable Connections
MaxConnections
DefaultTimeout

// Group Constants
StatusActive
StatusInactive

Error Naming Practices#

  • Error variables typically start with Err.
ErrUserNotFound
ErrInvalidToken
ErrConnectionClosed

Tests Naming Practices#

  • Test functions must follow the format: TestXxx
TestUserCreation
TestCalculateTotal
  • Benchmark tests follow: BenchmarkXxx
BenchmarkParseJSON
BenchmarkDatabaseInsert

File Naming Practices#

  • Go files typically use lowercase with underscores when necessary.
// Source Files
user.go
user_service.go
http_server.go
json_parser.go

// Test files
user_test.go
auth_test.go

Others#

  • Avoid Redundant Naming
// Package: http
// Type: Server

http.Server // Good use

HTTPServer // Bad use
  • Getters Methods don’t prefix Get, Instead direct use the function name.
  • Setter Methods do prefix Set.
// Getter Example
Name()
Age()
Balance()

// Setter Example
SetName()
SetBalance()
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