What names do you find yourself prepending/appending to classes regularly?

Question

Which nouns do you find yourself putting regularly at the end of your classes?

For example, I have a habit of sticking Info onto classes that pass information around but don't do a great deal:

ImportInfo
SiteInfo

Or for Coordinating classes:

UserManager
SecurityManager

I end up using Builder quite often for string related classes, even if it barely does any building:

TemplateBuilder
HtmlBuilder

And of course the timeless Helper/Utility class:

PhraseHelper
NumberUtility
FileHelper

Have you got any good, by which I mean concise and descriptive, nouns or words you regularly use to denote the class' main role?

This question is aimed at the .NET world, but can extend to Java, C++, Python and so on.

Related posts - [What is a better name than Manager, Processor etc?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/5569666/465053) *,* [Naming convention and structure for utility classes and methods](https://stackoverflow.com/q/1271254/465053), [What's the best approach to naming classes?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/38019/465053) , & [Naming Classes - How to avoid calling everything a “Manager”?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/1866794/465053) — RBT, Jul 11 '18 at 09:32

score 46 · Answer 1 · answered May 02 '12 at 21:47

46

You can take a look at source-code-wordle.de, I have analyzed there the most frequently used suffixes of class names of the .NET framework and some other libraries.

The top 20 are:

attribute
type
helper
collection
converter
handler
info
provider
exception
service
element
manager
node
option
factory
context
item
designer
base
editor

answered May 02 '12 at 21:47

Markus Meyer

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+1 for the link to wordle. Great way to visualize the usage of names. – Stefan Hanke Nov 05 '12 at 07:35
Interesting to see that the framework has more types of Attributes (annotations) than Exceptions :) – TWiStErRob Nov 14 '13 at 14:54
adapter, controller – tabebqena Jul 19 '21 at 10:50

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:32

9

I append pattern name at the end if i follow one (i.e. FooRepository).
Trying to avoid -Helper, -Manager, -Utils.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:32

Arnis Lapsa

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+1: those 'Helper' and 'Manager' names usually imply that you're wrapping up a procedural system and pretending it's object-oriented. There's nothing wrong with the procedural approach but if you want the benefits of object orientation then the objects should perform their own behaviour for the most part. – Kylotan Jul 28 '09 at 14:40
2

+1 for saying you shuold avoid Helper, Manager, etc. – rmeador Jul 28 '09 at 15:13
11

What's procedural about the word Manager? Helper I can understand, and Util and Tools, but Manager seems like it lends itself to being an object. – Chris S Jul 28 '09 at 20:13

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:21

7

I use Provider and Helper a lot.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:21

NotMe

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:19

5

Util

EnumUtil
ParseUtil
StringUtil
etc ...

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:19

JaredPar

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score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:30

4

Base, Reader, Writer, Manager, File.. some others.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:30

David Anderson

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:22

2

If my class is specifically doing calculations, I will prepend Calc

Examples:

TaxCalc
TipCalc
DateCalc

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:22

Matthew Jones

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:28

2

Tests for unit test classes

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:28

Charlie

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:40

2

I find myself sometimes appending the name of the parent class the one I'm writing I want to inherit. Sometimes it sounds weird especially with an Animal example (DogAnimal, FishAnimal, ...) but it makes finding subtypes easier in a list of classes.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:40

Chet

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LabradorDogCanineCarnivoreMammalVertebrateAnimalEukaryote, that sort of thing? ;-) – Steve Jessop Jul 28 '09 at 14:47
Although I joke, I actually don't think this is a bad idea, since in practice it's quite common to have 2-level hierarchies. WindowsThingy, LinuxThingy, MacOSThingy; LoopbackWotsit, NetworkWotsit, SerialWotsit; MysqlAdaptor, SqlserverAdaptor, SqliteAdaptor. – Steve Jessop Jul 28 '09 at 16:29
haha, yeah, I usually stop at two. Most inheritance beyond that is from the API. – Chet Jul 28 '09 at 16:50
`IPredicate` < `PredicateBase` < `PropertyPredicateBase` < `LessThanPropertyPredicate` – Dan Lugg Jan 04 '17 at 02:02

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

1

Factory

Also:

Provider

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

AlbertoPL

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

1

Factory
Helper
Utils
Job
Entity

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

Charlie

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:37

1

On occasion I use

Target

As in

UploadTarget
ProcessingTarget

I don't think I had before Silverlight / WPF but I now also use

Converter

As in:

CurrentTimeDisplayConverter
TimeDeltaConverter

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:37

t3rse

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 29 '09 at 07:56

1

I am often using :

Protocol (Specific protocol implementation)
Manager (Class managing the process)
Emulator (Emulate something...)

answered Jul 29 '09 at 07:56

Matthieu

114
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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:25

0

why of course...

Base

works both sides.

;-)

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:25

icelava

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

0

Controller and View.

answered Jul 28 '09 at 14:26

Robert S.

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What names do you find yourself prepending/appending to classes regularly?

14 Answers14

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