What is camelCase, PascalCase, kebab-case and

snake_case?
 1 minute read

Since we cannot define a variable like fruits in basket because many (or maybe all) programming
languages will interpret the space character as the end of the identifier and the beginning of something
else, we need to do something like fruitsInBasket.

Camel, pascal, kebab and snake case (and others) are all naming conventions that we use in computer
programming to be able to create compound names for variables, types, functions, clases and other
structures in source code.

camelCase
The rules are that we capitalize all the words after the first one.

Raw camelCase

fruits in basket fruitsInBasket

has error hasError

is visible isVisible

Camel case is commonly used for variables and functions in JavaScript.

PascalCase
Here we need to capitalize all the words including the first one.

Raw camelCase PascalCase

fruits in basket fruitsInBasket FruitsInBasket

has error hasError HasError

is visible isVisible IsVisible

PascalCase is often preferred by C programmers.

kebab-case
For this one, we add a dash between each word and all of them are lowercase.

Raw camelCase PascalCase kebab-case

fruits in basket fruitsInBasket FruitsInBasket fruits-in-basket

has error hasError HasError has-error

is visible isVisible IsVisible is-visible

HTML5 attributes can start with data- like data-name. Also, CSS uses dashes in property-names like
background-color.

snake_case
In contrast to the kebab case, for the snake case we add an underscore instead.

Raw camelCase PascalCase kebab-case snake_case

fruits in basket fruitsInBasket FruitsInBasket fruits-in-basket fruits_in_basket

has error hasError HasError has-error has_error

is visible isVisible IsVisible is-visible is_visible

Many programmers use underscores especially in SQL databases for things

like creation_date, company_name, etc.

Some benefits that naming conventions bring are:

 Consistency. Since naming something is one of the hardest jobs of a programmer, at least we

can agree on a convention and be consistent about it.
 Better understanding. Compound names explain a lot better than one word or one character
the purpose of the structure.
 Readability. Enhances the ability to read the code.
 Automation. Enables the use of automated refactoring and search and replace tools.