What does the variable name "lsSQL" mean?

Question

I've noticed in a recent article on TDWTF that someone was using the variable name lsSQL . I have also noticed similar variable names in a legacy application I am working on and in other places around the web, but I have never found out what the ls prefix stands for.

What does ls mean? What kind of notation is that?

Thanks,
Tom

Am I the only one that first read this as "IsSQL"? Not a great Hungarian letter. — Hans Passant, Apr 28 '10 at 16:05

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 28 '10 at 14:56

3

I would expect that this is a usage of Hungarian notation is Basic-like language (i.e. without strong typing). Here I would expect l to denote something like "local variable" as opposite to "argument" or "global variable", and s to denote type i.e. string here.

answered Apr 28 '10 at 14:56

SergGr

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That's what i thought, but it felt strange to see Hungarian notation in a PHP application... – Tom Apr 28 '10 at 15:35
Well, Hungarian notation is not bound only to some languages. It might be used in almost any imperative language. And in my opinion Hungarian notation is not always evil. I think that the best article on this top is written by Joel http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Wrong.html – SergGr Apr 29 '10 at 10:09

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '10 at 14:58

If my VB Naming Convention Fu serves me right, I believe the ls prefix stands for Local String (and then the SQL mearly indicates that it's the SQL Statement).

As a comparison reference in those situations, I would expect there to also be a variable prefixed with lcon for Local Connection.

What does the variable name "lsSQL" mean?

2 Answers2