oliverdavies.uk/content/node.2258201f-7beb-4b2a-8a52-ea31c09de73f.yml

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title:
  - value: |
      Camel-case or snake-case for Drupal code?
created:
  - value: '2023-04-19T00:00:00+00:00'
changed:
  - value: '2025-05-11T09:00:44+00:00'
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body:
  - value: |
      <p>For some time, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/standards/php/php-coding-standards#s-functions-and-variables">Drupal's PHP coding standards</a> allows for writing variables in either snake-case (e.g. <code>$my_variable</code>) or lower camel-case (<code>e.g. $myVariable</code>).</p>

      <p>It originally only allowed for snake-case variable names but once it accepted both, I switched to camel-case as my default.</p>

      <p>Why? I didn't like the inconsistency of using one approach for variable names and one for method and property names in PHP classes (which were always camel-case).</p>

      <p>I'd have had code like this with a mixture of both:</p>

      <pre><code class="language-php">class MyClass {

        private EntityTypeManagerInterface $entityTypeManager;

        public function __construct(EntityTypeManagerInterface $entity_type_manager) {
          $this-&gt;entityTypeManager = $entity_type_manager;
        }

      }
      </code></pre>

      <p>Or even more simply:</p>

      <pre><code class="language-php">$entity_type_manager = \Drupal::entityTypeManager();
      </code></pre>

      <p>I prefer not to have to consistently think about which to use and, if possible, like to use standard approaches in different codebases whether I'm working on a Drupal project, a Symfony project, or a PHP library.</p>

      <p>Plus, I get to use new PHP features like <a href="/daily/2023/04/12/cleaner-php-code-with-promoted-constructor-properties">promoted constructor properties</a> if everything is named in the same format.</p>

              
    format: full_html
    processed: |
      <p>For some time, <a href="https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/standards/php/php-coding-standards#s-functions-and-variables">Drupal's PHP coding standards</a> allows for writing variables in either snake-case (e.g. <code>$my_variable</code>) or lower camel-case (<code>e.g. $myVariable</code>).</p>

      <p>It originally only allowed for snake-case variable names but once it accepted both, I switched to camel-case as my default.</p>

      <p>Why? I didn't like the inconsistency of using one approach for variable names and one for method and property names in PHP classes (which were always camel-case).</p>

      <p>I'd have had code like this with a mixture of both:</p>

      <pre><code class="language-php">class MyClass {

        private EntityTypeManagerInterface $entityTypeManager;

        public function __construct(EntityTypeManagerInterface $entity_type_manager) {
          $this-&gt;entityTypeManager = $entity_type_manager;
        }

      }
      </code></pre>

      <p>Or even more simply:</p>

      <pre><code class="language-php">$entity_type_manager = \Drupal::entityTypeManager();
      </code></pre>

      <p>I prefer not to have to consistently think about which to use and, if possible, like to use standard approaches in different codebases whether I'm working on a Drupal project, a Symfony project, or a PHP library.</p>

      <p>Plus, I get to use new PHP features like <a href="/daily/2023/04/12/cleaner-php-code-with-promoted-constructor-properties">promoted constructor properties</a> if everything is named in the same format.</p>

              
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