Best Practices in Naming Conventions

When naming the project folder (short title), files within, and even variable names (column headers in spreadsheets) there are some best practices in naming conventions to keep in mind.

• Keep names short, but meaningful.

• Use ISO date format: YYYY, YYYYMM, or YYYYMMDD. It ensures that files with the same name and different dates are sorted in order.

• Avoid using “draft”, “version”, or “final” in file names. Use date (in ISO format, see above) to distinguish versions or use consecutive numbering live v1, v2, v3, ...

• When using personal names, give the family name first, followed by the first name or initials (e.g. SmithMary or SmithMC).

• Use only letters, numbers, dashes, “-“, and underscores, “_”. Do not use spaces or any other characters.

Examples of file names using the naming conventions:

• 20201211_SmithMC_samplingdata.jpeg

• ProjectReport_20201213.docx

• 20201215_duckData-south.xlxs

• PBear_2020_annualobservationv4.tiff