Question

I have a class that handles writing and reading data from my database. What is a proper name to call this class?

Answer 1

There are a couple of conventions. Assuming a Person model, you could use:

PersonDataAccessObject,
PersonDao,
PersonRepository,
PersonDataAccess,

…

It is also dependent on the technology you are using. I mean, who knows what conventions exist for the language you are using. Let us know what language and what data access framework and the answer may vary.

I used to append “Dao” because it’s short and clear. But then I moved over more to Martin Fowler’s vocabulary and patterns, so now I use Repository. A little more long winded, but I’m long winded by nature, so it fits my style. In the end, that’s the key. It’s stylistic and there is no across the board standard that I’m aware of. What’s most important is that you pick something that is clear and you use it consistently. If you decide, later on, to switch to something else, have mercy on any programmers that may follow you and rename everything so that all your data access components are consistently named.

Edit: in rereading this, I realized I am assuming you are going to have multiple such classes, one for each of your model entities. Who knows what your setup is. If you aren’t going to do it like that, and you’re just looking for a standard name for a single point of entry to all data access, you could use:

DataMapper
Gateway

Typically, the assumption is that you are going to have several of these around, one for each of your “tables”/model entities. More than a naming convention, that is probably a standard coding convention. This way, when you change or add some aspect of how you interact with your “persons” table, you don’t have to modify a class in which you have code to access the “addresses” table. Check out Martin Fowler’s Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (PofEAA), for more

PofEAA catalog of patterns (check out Data Source Architectural Patterns

and

Domain Driven Design Quickly (free pdf) esp. Ch. 3