the.com/identifier
The name a variable gives itself to feel less like a number.
means A name or label used to uniquely refer to something — a variable, a file, a person, a record — so it can be found and distinguished from everything else.
from Built from Latin idem, 'the same,' plus facere, 'to make' — the same root that gives us 'identity.' The -fier ending marks an agent that does the making, so an identifier is literally 'that which makes (something) the same (as itself across contexts)' — a fittingly circular pedigree for a word whose whole job is pinning down sameness.
- cannot start with
- digits, most languages forbid it
- case matters
- myVar and myvar are strangers
- reserved words banned
- you cannot name a variable if
- underscores allowed
- snake_case is a legal identity