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This article explains the different patterns and uses of underscores in Python. We all know basic variable naming rules in Python – start with an alphabet or underscore, cannot start with a number, can use any alphanumeric characters and underscores, is case sensitive. For common variable naming use, underscores are used in snake_case variables – separating compound variable name with underscores (eg. my_name_is_ralph) for every programming language. Now, in Python, underscore has a specific meaning for different situations. It has a slightly different meaning when used in ways other than for snake_case variables. At the end of this article, you will get a cheat sheet for easier future reference. The 5 basic underscore patterns in Python are –

1. Python Naming Conventions Cheat Sheet Pdf
2. Python Naming Conventions Variables
3. Python Naming Conventions Cheatsheet

1. Single Underscore
2. Single Leading/Pre Underscore
3. Single Trailing/Post Underscore
4. Double Leading/Pre Underscore
5. Double Leading and Trailing Underscore

Let’s dive in and understand each of these with examples.

3.16.3 File Naming. Python filenames must have a.py extension and must not contain dashes (-). This allows them to be imported and unittested. If you want an executable to be accessible without the extension, use a symbolic link or a simple bash wrapper containing exec '$0.py' '$@'. 3.16.4 Guidelines derived from Guido’s Recommendations. Despite all these struggles, there are naming conventions in Python to ‘narrow down’ your choices of naming variables. They help make your codes more consistent, readable, and reusable. So you should no longer declare all variables using single lowercase letters like a, x etc. If the letters themselves do not carry meanings.

1. Single Underscore: _variable

Single underscore serves multiple purposes –

1. Use in Interpreter – Underscore stores the value of the last expression evaluated by the interpreter in most Python REPLs (an interactive shell that takes single user input, evaluates it, and returns the result). It can then be used for further calculations and its value can be assigned to other variables also, just like any other variable.
2. As a looping variable – Single underscores can be used as a variable in loops.
3. Use in unpacking expressions – You can use a single underscore in unpacking expressions as a “don’t care” variable to ignore values that you do not need for future use. It is a valid variable name used for this purpose. For example, we are unpacking a fruit dictionary. We are interested only in red fruits, but for unpacking, we need to assign all key-values contained in the dictionary to variables. This is where underscores come into play.

2. Single Leading/Pre Underscore: _variable

Single leading underscores indicate that a name is meant for internal use. This convention is defined in PEP8. However, when we are writing our class, it behaves like any other variable/method name. It does not cause any error while instantiating the class and using its methods and variables. Take a look at the following example.

In this example, we see that there was no problem in instantiating the fruit class and accessing any of its methods or variables. This is because it is just a naming convention when it comes to variable/method names and does not affect the behavior of the program.

But single leading underscore affects how names get imported from modules. Let a module lady_bird.py have two methods – pattern(), _can_fly().

Now, if a wildcard import (import all classes in a package/all names in a module using import*) is used for this module, Python will import all the names except for those starting with a single leading underscore. But, unlike wildcard imports, regular imports are not affected by it.

3. Single Trailing/Post Underscore: variable_

Python keywords cannot be used as variable names. For example, class, def, len are all Python keywords. These cannot be used as variable names. To avoid naming conflicts, single trailing underscore can be used so class_ , def_ , len_ become valid variable names.

4. Double Leading/Pre Underscore: __variable

Double leading underscores in Python serve the purpose of name mangling. Name mangling is a technique where the interpreter rewrites an attribute name to avoid naming conflicts in the subclasses inherited from the parent class. This is not a naming convention. It has a special meaning to the interpreter. Any identifier of the form “__variable” (at least two leading underscores and at most one trailing underscore) is replaced with “_Classname__variable”, where “Classname” is the current class name. Let’s look at an example.

Python Naming Conventions Cheat Sheet Pdf

As expected, the “_no_teachers” method in “School” class is not changed but “__no_students” is changed to “_School__no_students” in class “School”. In “ClassX”, “__no_sudents” method is changed to “_ClassX__no_students” hence preventing naming clash with the parent class. One important thing to note here is that “__variable” changes permanently to “_Classname__variable” and so we must access this variable/method name using the new name only.

5. Double Leading and Trailing Underscore: __variable__

Methods containing double leading and trailing underscores are special methods in Python called “magic methods” or “dunder methods”. Dunder here means “double underscore”. One can override these methods and define their special methods. For example, the len function internally calls the __len__ method of the object. We can define our special method, but it is better to avoid using double pre and post underscores to avoid any type of naming error.

Underscore Naming Patterns Cheat Sheet

So, now we know the use of each underscore pattern in Python. At first, it might not sink in, seems like too much information to absorb. Do give it another read if you didn’t understand it at one go. It might not seem to be of much use to a Python beginner. But as you advance, you will realize that it is indeed an important part that helps to avoid some mistakes where you won’t be able to deduce what went wrong and eventually get a headache.

Python Naming Conventions Variables

Want to add your thoughts? Need any further help? Leave a comment below and I will get back to you ASAP 🙂

For further reading:

Find the least frequent character in a string in Python
Find the GCD of two numbers recursively in Python
Python program to find smallest prime divisor of a number

Python Naming Conventions Cheatsheet