Should a function that returns something be named as an accessor (getSomething)?

Question

I understand accessors have to do with OOP. For other languages such as C, imagine you have a function that given 2 numbers returns their sum. Should you name it getSum() or sum()?

Answer 1

If I have a function that computes a sum, I would simply call it sum (a verb) whether I'm working in a procedural or an object-oriented language.

If I'm retrieving a property named sum (a noun), I would follow the conventions for that specific language for doing so, for example, get_sum() in C, getSum() in Java or a Sum property in C#.

Clarification: This does not mean that a property accessor cannot perform any computation. However, if the function is intended to perform a computation rather than expose a (computed) property value, it shouldn't be modeled like a property.

Answer 2

Some functions are queries asking for results without asking for change.

But other "functions" are requests for change returning a result of success or failure, or sometimes (a reference to) the item created.

The former are just getters in some sense, while the latter are not despite returning a value.

Answer 3

a getter I'd expect to be a funtion () -> T i.e. takes no argument and returns something (Supplier<T> in Java)

sum as a function does not have this signiture, it would have (int, int) -> int or similar. so no I would not call this getSum but sum.