Placeholder Identifier Name
ID |
go.naming_placeholder_identifier |
Severity |
info |
Remediation Complexity |
trivial |
Remediation Risk |
medium |
Remediation Effort |
low |
Resource |
Naming Convention |
Language |
Go |
Tags |
naming |
Description
Reports identifiers — local variables, function and method parameters, and function / method
names — whose name matches a configurable placeholder list (foo, bar, baz, tmp,
temp, stuff, obj, …). Placeholder names survive from quick prototyping and communicate
nothing about the value’s role.
Rationale
A good identifier name documents intent at every use site. Placeholders force the reader to scroll back to the declaration or — worse — to infer the meaning from context, with the risk of mis-reading.
// Bad
foo := 1
tmp := ""
func bar() {}
// Good
amount := 1
greeting := ""
func renderInvoice() {}Exceptions
-
package-level variable declarations — exported names are part of the package API and may legitimately use domain words;
-
method receivers — receiver names follow the receiver-naming convention;
-
test files (names ending in
_test.go) — placeholder-name nits in throw-away test scaffolding are noise.
The match is case-insensitive but exact, so dataSource and temperature are not flagged.
Parameters
placeholderNames-
List of names treated as placeholders. Defaults to
[foo, bar, baz, qux, tmp, temp, xyz, myVar, obj, stuff, thing].