For the first time, the systematic use of medial capitals for technical purposes was the notation for chemical formulae which were invented by the Swedish chemist named Jacob Berzelius in 1813. He proposed that chemical elements should be indicated by a symbol either of one or two letters, this proposition was to replace the extreme use of naming and symbol conventions. This new way of writing formulae like “NaCl” is to be written without spaces.
Such writing styles have specific terms, for instance, Camel Case and Pascal Case. Other than these two there’re many others, but these are the most used.
Camel case is also written as CamelCase and camelCase and also known as camel caps or medial capitals. It’s basically an exercise of writing words together without spaces or punctuation, moreover, to show the separation of words a single capitalized letter can be used, furthermore, the first letter of the first word can be written with either case. “iPhone” and “eBay” are two examples of Camel case.
Pascal case is a writing style that is used when more than one word is needed to convey the meaning properly. Its convention of naming dictates that words are added to each other. When a single uppercase letter is used for every word that is added, it becomes easier to read code and understand the purpose of variables.
There aren’t many differences between the Camel case and the Pascal case, the only difference is that the Pascal case requires the first letter of the words that are added to be uppercase, while the camel case doesn’t require the letter of every word that is added to be uppercase.
Here’s a video that explains all the popular case styles with examples.
| Pascal case | Camel case |
| In Pascal case, the first letter of a variable is always in uppercase | In Camel case, the first letter can either be in uppercase or in lowercase |
| Example: TechTerms | Example: HyperCard or iPhone |
Keep reading to know more.
What is a Pascal Case in programming?
Pascal Case can be written as PascalCase, it’s a programming naming convention in which the letter of every word that is added is capitalized. Descriptive variable names are a software development’s best exercise, but modern programming languages don’t require variables to have blank spaces.
Pascal case became popular because of the Pascal programming language, moreover, Pascal itself is case insensitive, and thus there was no requirement to use PascalCase. The reason PascalCase became a standard convention for Pascal developers is that it improved the readability of codes.
Pascal case naming conventions can cause problems on occasion. For instance, acronyms and abbreviations become a challenge for the developers who use PascalCase. If a developer is using the NASA images APIs, then those two variables will have to comply with the Pascal case naming convention. It would be written as either NASAImages or as
NasaImages.
Pascal case examples
- TechTerms
- TotalValue
- StarCraft
- MasterCard
What is a Camel Case?
Camel case is a practice of writing phrases without spaces and punctuation, it can be written as camelCase or CamelCase and it’s also known as camel caps or medial capitals. To indicate the separation of words a single letter can be capitalized, moreover, the first word can start with either uppercase or lowercase.
Occasionally, It’s used in online usernames, for example, “johnSmith”. It’s also used to create a multi-word domain name much more legible, for example in promoting “EasyWidgetCompany.com”.
Camel case is said to be also used as a naming convention in computer programming, however, it is open to more than one interpretation because of the optional capitalization in the first letter. Different programming prefer different use of camel case, some prefer the first letter to be capitalized, and others don’t.
Since the 1970s, the naming convention was used in the names of computer companies and their commercial brands as well and continues to this day. For example
- CompuServe in 1977
- WordStar in 1978
- VisiCalc in 1979
- NetWare in 1983
- LaserJet, MacWorks, and PostScript in 1984
- PageMaker in 1985
- ClarisWorks, HyperCard, and PowerPoint in 1987
Does Python use the camel case?
As Python is a programming language, there’re many conventions that Python uses and Camel case is one of them. Here’s how to use it, begin by capitalizing the letter of the word. Do not separate words with underscores and use lowercase words.
Python is considered a high-level programming language, its design emphasizes code readability by utilizing a significant indentation. Its language is object-oriented which helps programmers write clear, logical code for small as well as large-scale projects.
Python supports multiple programming paradigms, which include structured object-oriented and functional programming. Moreover, python is also described as a “batteries included” language because of the comprehensive standard library that it contains. Python is quite popular, thus it consistently ranks as one of the most popular programming languages.
Which case is used in Python?
Python is known for its incredible code readability, as it uses naming conventions, and these only can play a significant role in how good or bad the code is written. Python uses a different kind of naming convention in different aspects, here are the naming conventions that are used by Python.
- For variables, functions, methods, and modules: Snake Case.
- For classes: Pascal Case.
- For constants: Capitalized Snake Case.
Should Python variables be CamelCase?
There’s a study that said the reader can recognize Snake case values quicker than Camel case. This is the reason that Python uses Snake case rather than Camel case.
The naming convention for variables as well as method names is mostly either camelCase or PascalCase. Python uses naming conventions which makes its code readability the best. For variables, Python uses Snake Case, Snake Case which is styled as snake_case, in this you are supposed to fill the space with an underscore ( _ ), moreover, the first letter of every word is written in lowercase. It’s primarily used in computing, such as for variables, subroutine names, and for filenames.
Furthermore, Camel case is used in programming languages for naming different files and functions without violating the naming laws of the underlying language.
Snake case vs Camel case
There’re many naming conventions and every one of them is used in different aspects. Snake case and Camel case are two of them.
Snake case is written in a style where space is to be filled with an underscore, whereas the Camel case is used in a style where which is phrases are written without spaces or punctuation, to indicate separation of words you can capitalize a single letter and the first letter of the first word can be written in uppercase or lowercase.
Snake case is primarily used in computing, such as for variables, subroutine names, and for filenames, and Camel case is used in naming different files and functions.
There’s another casing called Kebab case, in this you use hyphens for the separation of words.
To Conclude
There are many naming conventions, but we’ll dive into Camel Case and Pascal Case. The difference between Camel case and Pascal case is that, in Pascal case, the first letter of the words has to be uppercase, while in the camel case it isn’t required.
Python uses many naming conventions for every different aspect, for variables it uses snake case, as a study said, readers, can easily and quickly recognize snake case values.
You can use any naming conventions if it makes your code readability better. As a specific naming convention can make code readability better, this is the reason why Python uses Snake case.