Spice Up Your Code: Thematic Placeholder Names for Programming

In software development, the use of placeholder names like foo, bar, and baz is a common practice. These are known as metasyntactic variables. They are used when the actual name doesn’t matter and are similar to the use of “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” in legal cases.

While these placeholders are widely recognized in the programming community, they can sometimes make examples or tests feel abstract and hard to follow, especially for beginners. By using more descriptive or thematic placeholder names, we can make our code examples more relatable and easier to understand. It’s a small change, but it can make learning to code a bit more fun and engaging.

In this blog post, I’ve compiled lists of two, three, four, five, and six-word sequences that can be used as metasyntactic variables in your code. These sequences are commonly recognized phrases or sets, so they should feel familiar and intuitive. They can be used in place of foo, bar, and baz to add a bit of color and context to your code examples or tests.

If you don’t know if you might need one, two, or more, one way you can get inspiration is to chose a category, possibly one that has something to do with what you’re writing about, and then just harvest your words from there.

For example:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ...
red, blue, green, yellow, purple, pink, ...
mouse, cat, dog, horse, elephant, whale, ...
monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday
january, february, march, april, may, june, july, august, september, november, october, december
mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, pluto, eris

Now to the lists of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 words. I’ve divided them into “things” and “expressions”.

Two words: Things

sweet, sour
high, low
black, white
night, day
hot, cold
young, old
fast, slow
hard, soft
rich, poor
wet, dry
big, small
long, short
happy, sad
clean, dirty
heavy, light
loud, quiet
cheap, expensive
easy, difficult
strong, weak
near, far
life, death

Two words: Expressions

touch, base
game, over
well, done
high, five
good, luck
no, brainer
full, throttle
double, check
ground, zero
last, straw
free, spirit
cold, turkey
brain, drain
blue, chip
blank, check
break, free
burn, out
call, off
catch, up
check, in

Three words: Things

rock, paper, scissors
blood, sweat, tears
breakfast, lunch, dinner
past, present, future
faith, hope, love
reading, writing, arithmetic
life, liberty, happiness
veni, vidi, vici
mind, body, soul
small, medium, large
beginning, middle, end
red, white, blue
lock, stock, barrel
gold, silver, bronze
lion, tiger, bear
lights, camera, action
faith, hope, love
eat, pray, love

Three words: Expressions

tit, for, tat
piece, of, cake
break, the, ice
under, the, weather
when, pigs, fly
bite, the, bullet
snap, crackle, pop
ready, set, go
the, real, deal
when, in, rome
criss, cross, applesauce

Four words: Things

north, south, east, west
spring, summer, autumn, winter
earth, water, air, fire
morning, noon, evening, night
salt, pepper, sugar, spice
coffee, tea, juice, water
fork, knife, spoon, chopsticks
north, south, east, west,
spring, summer, fall, winter

Four words: Expressions

cut, to, the, chase
beat, around, the, bush
call, it, a, day
cross, that, bridge, later
hit, the, nail, head
leave, no, stone, unturned
out, of, the, blue
sit, on, the, fence
the, ball, is, rolling
through, thick, and, thin
go, the, extra, mile
the, pen, is, mightier
the, whole, nine, yards

Five words: Things

vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste
eye, ear, finger, nose, tongue
sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
thumb, index, middle, ring, pinkie
superior, michigan, huron, erie, ontario
africa, americas, asia, europe, oceania
a, e, i, o, u
shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, hajj

Five words: Expressions

once, in, a, blue, moon
barking, up, the, wrong, tree
out, of, the, frying, pan
the, best, of, both, worlds
the, grass, is, always, greener
theres, no, place, like, home
you, cannot, judge, a, book

Six words: Expressions

time, flies, when, youre, having
cost, an, arm, and, a, leg
the, devil, is, in, the, details
every, cloud, has, a, silver, lining
make, hay, while, the, sun, shines
the, ball, is, in, your, court
an, early, bird, catches, the, worm