Which word do you use to describe a JSON-like object?

Question

I have a naming issue.

If I read an object x from some JSON I can call my variable xJson (or some variation). However sometimes it is possible that the data could have come from a number of different sources amongst which JSON is not special (e.g. XMLRPC, programmatically constructed from Maps,Lists & primitives ... etc).

In this situation what is a good name for the variable? The best I have come up with so far is something like 'DynamicData', which is ok in some situations, but is a bit long and not probably not very clear to people unfamiliar with the convention.

Answer 1

SerializedData?

Answer 2

A hierarchical collection of hashes and lists of data is often referred to as a document no matter what serialization format is used. Another useful description might be payload or body in the sense of a message body for transmission or a value string written to a key/value store.

I tend to call the object hierarchy a "doc" myself, and the serialized format a "document." Thus a RequestDocument is parsed into a RequestDoc, and upon further identification it might become an OrderDoc, or a CustomerUpdateDoc, etc. An InvoiceDoc might become known generically as a ResponseDoc eventually serialized to a ResponseDocument.

The longer form is awkward, but such serialized strings are typically short-lived and localized in the code anyway.

Answer 3

If your data is the model, name it after the model it's representing. e.g., name it after the purpose of the contents, not the format of the contents. So if it's a list of customer information, name it "customers", or "customerModel", or something like that.

If you don't know what the contents are, the name isn't important, unless you want to differentiate the format. "responseData", "jsonResponse", etc...

And "DynamicData" isn't a long name, unless there is absolutely nothing descriptive to be said about the data. "data" might be just fine.