When should I use “value” as an argument name? [closed]

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I'm building my own utility functions to master ES6:

const contains = (array, value) => {
  return array.indexOf(value) > -1
}

const keys = (object) => {
  return Object.keys(object)
}

const find = (array, value) => {
  return array.filter(item => {
    return item[keys[0]] === value[keys[0]]
  })[0]
}

So far, I've encountered only one problem: naming my arguments. I'm checking Lodash's naming conventions. I think it's clear when to use array, object, etc... I also saw the keyword value. When to use this one? When I'm unsure of the argument's type?

Answer 1

In this context, value is being used as a synonym for "item in an array or collection." It's as good a guideline as any.

Answer 2

Try to describe in english what the code does. The words you'll find yourself using naturally when describing in english are great candidates for the names of the corresponding variables in the code.

(Of course, you may need some grammatical/syntactical transformations. In english you may say "an array" or "the array", but you don't want anArray in your code - just array is better)

This also works the other way around - try to describe in english using the names you've chosen, and see it it sounds correct:

• contains: Check if a value is inside an array
• keys: List the field names of an object
• find: Find the index of a value inside an array

The last one sounds a bit off - so maybe item or entry will be better? Try saying them out loud and choose the one that sounds best.