Question

This is a general question about getters.

Let’s assume I have a User class with 2 native properties firstname and lastname and one dynamic computed property fullname.

What’s the best way of naming the getter for those?

I’m fine with:

user->get_firstname();
user->get_lastname();
// or
user->firstname;
user->lastname;

but I’m more concerned about:

user->get_fullname();
// or
user->fullname;

because we feel like it’s just another native property but it’s not. The fullname property can be read but not written, there’s no setter for it. We cannot manipulate it as if it’s a native property.

I would like to be able to make a difference between those properties (native vs computed dynamically), how should I do?

Examples from existing framework and how they deal with this is more than welcome.

Answer 1

I would say it should be named the same as the other getters. Whether it’s a basic property or a calculated value comes down to implementaion specifics which I would want abstracted from the end user. Fullname might be a calculated value today but maybe in the future it won’t be. I want to have the freedom to change this in future in one place but keep the public interface the same.