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I have several kinds of identifiers in my Windows desktop application. A batch identifier, a job identifier and so on. Each identifier is a unique positive integer, the value has no meaning but to identify a batch, a job, etc. These identifier are displayed in a table. The question now is how to name the columns? In order to get narrow columns I need to shorten "Batch Identifier".

As a non-native english speaker I searched the WEB and I don't get a clear Picture whether "Batch Id" oder "Batch ID" is the right way. Or is there even no right way and both versions are ok?

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    Id looks a lot like ld, in fonts where capital "i" is very similar to "l" can be confusing. Also, I either see "id" or "ID". Can't remember when I've last seen "Id".
    – user1306322
    Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 11:08
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    Or jus use Batch - especially if the column names are known to be shortened
    – mmmmmm
    Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 13:38
  • Poke English Language & Usage
    – msanford
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 21:09

6 Answers 6

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"ID" means "identification." Use that.

"Id" means something different from ID. (Hint: it's Freudian.)

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Camel case does not apply to this because Camel case is a style method for programming. You are asking about how to abbreviate an English term. The proper use is ID; never Id.

Unfortunately, this question should be asked on another stackexchange involving such topics where the fuller explanation will be made evident.

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From https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1151338/id-or-id-on-user-interface, specifically https://stackoverflow.com/a/1151345/881441:

According to Merriam-Webster, the abbreviation is "ID". If it were a correct abbreviation, it would have to be "Id." with the period.

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When you have two letters, both should be upper case. When you have three, only the first one should be upper case.

This means that BatchID is correct and BatchId is incorrect.

Reference:Camel Casing

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    Those rules apply to acronyms, but id is an abbreviation for identifier, not an acronym.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 19:17
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    @BenVoigt The problem of English is that you distinguish these two :p In Czech, we do not make this distinction, and we're happily living.
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 26, 2014 at 13:21
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    Sorry for confusion, I meant the distinction between acronyms and abbreviations. We don't have that, we call them by the same word. And whatever rules apply to acronyms, they apply to abbreviations as well ;)
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 26, 2014 at 18:02
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    Um, because the question doesn't ask anything about camel case or programming variables, I think this answer is misleading. "ID" as a word is correct not because it has only two letters, it's correct because that's the accepted short form of "identification."
    – Ken Mohnkern
    Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 20:33
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    There are different naming conventions, and they prefer different choices. So you can't declare on of them as universally incorrect. Either choice can be correct, as long as it conforms to the convention you chose. I for one avoid ID (or XML), since it doesn't allow reliable splitting of an identifier into its constituent parts. getElementById is an example in a popular language (though it doesn't apply the rule consistently, e.g. it uses XML not Xml.
    – CodesInChaos
    Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 8:45
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This has been discussed earlier here

To summarize though:

BatchID, and JobID, might look nice, but if you're using Camel Casing you're just as likely to run into something like:

IDAnalytics and IDValidation etc...

Which is (subjectively) confusing

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It should be Id and Ok, but DB and IO according to the Microsoft naming convention:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229043(v=vs.100).aspx#Anchor_2

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  • That link suggests otherwise. "In Pascal-cased identifiers they should appear as Id, and Ok". 'Identifier' isn't ever going to be in Pascal-case because it is a single word.
    – JonW ♦
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 11:49
  • They make a difference in abbreviations vs acronyms.
    – nicojs
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 11:58
  • They make a difference in abbreviations vs acronyms. It states that ID is an abbreviation and not an acronym, hence the acronym rules do not apply. It also states that The identifier casing rules take precedence over acronym casing rules.. Further more it is specified that in a Pascal-case word it should be Id. My interpretation is that it should be Id. Others in my company agree with me. Keep in mind that this is just the microsoft naming convetion.
    – nicojs
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 12:09
  • "The two abbreviations that can be used in identifiers are ID and OK" - Your link
    – Kelderic
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 16:52

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