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POWhat makes a good name for a helper function?
 

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  1. POWhat makes a good name for a helper function?
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    <p>Consider the following problem: given a list of length three of tuples (String,Int), is there a pair of elements having the same "Int" part? (For example, <code>[("bob",5),("gertrude",3),("al",5)]</code> contains such a pair, but <code>[("bob",5),("gertrude",3),("al",1)]</code> does not.)</p> <p>This is how I would implement such a function:</p> <pre><code>import Data.List (sortBy) import Data.Function (on) hasPair::[(String,Int)]-&gt;Bool hasPair = napkin . sortBy (compare `on` snd) where napkin [(_, a),(_, b),(_, c)] | a == b = True | b == c = True | otherwise = False </code></pre> <p>I've used pattern matching to bind names to the "Int" part of the tuples, but I want to sort first (in order to group like members), so I've put the pattern-matching function inside a <code>where</code> clause. But this brings me to my question: <strong>what's a good strategy for picking names for functions that live inside <code>where</code> clauses</strong>? I want to be able to think of such names quickly. For this example, "hasPair" seems like a good choice, but it's already taken! I find that pattern comes up a lot - the natural-seeming name for a helper function is already taken by the outer function that calls it. So I have, at times, called such helper functions things like "op", "foo", and even "helper" - here I have chosen "napkin" to emphasize its use-it-once, throw-it-away nature.</p> <p>So, dear Stackoverflow readers, what would you have called "napkin"? And more importantly, how do you approach this issue in general?</p>
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    1. USDon Stewart
    1. USgcbenison
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    1. CO`go` is the way :)
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      1. POWhat makes a good name for a helper function?
      1. USRiccardo T.
    2. COA general metric - _use short descriptive names, if you struggle to be suitably descriptive just make them short_. By the way `napkin` as currently written is not very robust (the list must have exactly three members), if you think about it a bit more maybe it will suggest a better name.
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      1. POWhat makes a good name for a helper function?
      1. USstephen tetley
    3. CO@stephen Yeah, I realized that about `napkin` as I was writing it. Would you say this is true in general though: if you're having a hard time naming a function, your design probably needs improvement? If true, that's a pretty powerful concept...
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