Editing Hungarian notation (section)

{{Short description|Computer programming identifier naming notation}}
'''Hungarian notation''' is an [[identifier naming convention]] in [[computer programming]] in which the name of a [[variable (computer science)|variable]] or [[subroutine|function]] indicates its intention or kind, or in some dialects, its [[data type|type]]. The original Hungarian notation uses only intention or kind in its naming convention and is sometimes called ''Apps Hungarian'' as it became popular in the [[Microsoft]] Apps division in the development of [[Microsoft Office]] applications. When the [[Microsoft Windows]] division adopted the naming convention, they based it on the actual data type, and this convention became widely spread through the [[Windows API]]; this is sometimes called ''Systems Hungarian'' notation.

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|quote  = '''Simonyi''': ...BCPL [had] a single type which was a 16-bit word... not that it matters.

'''Booch''': Unless you continue the Hungarian notation.

'''Simonyi''': Absolutely... we went over to the typed languages too later ... But ... we would look at one name and I would tell you exactly a lot about that...<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/06/102702232-05-01-acc.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910103308/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2015/06/102702232-05-01-acc.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-10 |url-status=live|title=Oral History of Charles Simonyi |website=Archive.computerhistory.org\accessdate=5 August 2018}}</ref>
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Hungarian notation was designed to be language-independent, and found its first major use with the [[BCPL]] programming language. Because BCPL has no data types other than the machine [[Word (computer architecture)|word]], nothing in the language itself helps a [[programmer]] remember variables' types. Hungarian notation aims to remedy this by providing the programmer with explicit knowledge of each variable's data type.

In Hungarian notation, a variable name starts with a group of lower-case letters which are [[mnemonic]]s for the type or purpose of that variable, followed by whatever name the programmer has chosen; this last part is sometimes distinguished as the ''given name''. The first character of the given name can be capitalized to separate it from the type indicators (see also [[CamelCase]]). Otherwise the case of this character denotes scope.