A brief introduction to best practices for file and directory naming that will help keep you sane.
This is a brief note on best practices for naming files and directories. There is no universal convention that I am aware of but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by following a few simple rules when naming files and directories.
Your task is to ensure your files are Machine readable and Human readable.
Never use special characters in your file name
(e.g., * # : \ / < > | " ? [ ] ; = + & £ $, and
so on). Letters and numbers only. Many of these symbols
are prohibited and a lot of software will reject files that contain
these symbols.
Periods . should only be used for a file extension, like
document.html. If you put a period . at the
beginning of a file or directory name, like .bash_profile,
then it will be hidden by default. Do not do this at the beginning of a
name unless you know what you are doing :)
Do not use spaces. Separate words using a dash
(-) or an underscore (_), like
how-to-use-this-site.Rmd. You can also use camel case if
you prefer, like howToUseThisSite.Rmd.
The file name should be short but meaningful. This is important when dealing with a lot of files, like for a website. So add relevant details but keep it less than 25 characters—long file names mean long URLs, which can increase the likelihood of errors..
If you include a date in the name, use date format ISO_8601
YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD. Distill blog sites use
YYYY-MM-DD by default.
You can begin a file/directory name with a number, just be sure to
use sequential numbering like 01_File,
02_Stuff, etc. instead of 1_File and
2_Stuff.
Whatever approach you choose, I think the main key is to be
consistent. If you use dashes - to separate words in a
name, then try to stick with that for everything.
The feature photo for this post—A small amateur insect collection by Debivort at the English-language Wikipedia—was retrieved from Wikimedia Commons and Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Original image found here.
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