naming conventions of Field Name

Question

What is your naming conventions of Field Name..

Which is popular way?

Example:

firstname
First_Name
first_name
firstName
FirstName



category_id
categoryID
CategoryID
categoryId

Answer 1

I would recommend first_name and category_id due to readability and easily understandable.

Answer 2

This is all a matter of preference. I personally am more used to camelcase (FirstName) or for id fields (CategoryID) to break away from it. But that is just because all of the databases I have been in lately are set up using it. So it is more whatever feels natural to you.

As for ids and foreign keys, I make the id in both tables the same (ie Category table would have CategoryID as the key and anything referencing it would also have CategoryID for the field name).

Answer 3

Usually, it should be all lowercase chars and using _ between letters.

But for example if you have a table Category and a primary key, in my opinion this should by id (not category_id). I use category_id in another table as a foreign key.