I have a class Person and a method returning Collection<Person>. Is there a naming convention for this in Java? Should I name it findPersons or rather findPeople? Which version is preferable when we have name with irregular plural name in English?
What is a correct naming convention for Java method returning collection of elements?
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3 Answers
Name it what it does by code.
findPersons // since it would find a collection of Person
As long as it's readable and makes sense to relate to the existing code, its good.
Keep it straightforward AT ALL TIMES. I'm tending towards a more 'functional' approach regarding this to avoid it all :) I'd use just "find()", and perhaps not as part of this class but more as a generic function as it makes it more bulky and less re-usable. Something in the lines of this: "Collection find(args...)"
The result collection itself is revealing enough zero or more is to be expected. (or the Optional if zero or one is to be expected) I mean, it is Object-oriented programming, but not Objects-oriented programming ;)
I think it depends on the name and function of the class.
If the class' function is to manage a collection of Person objects (e.g., PersonManager or PersonList), then the method should just be called find, because the return type is implied.
Otherwise, I would follow @nullpointer's advice by naming the method findPersons, as it explains what the code is doing.
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