Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• What is a File Naming Convention?

• What is a File Name?

• What are the benefits of using a file naming convention?

Objectives

• First learning objective. (FIXME)

What is a File Naming Convention?

A File Naming Convention (FNC) is a framework or protocol if you like for naming your files in a way that describes what files contain and importantly, how they relate to other files. It is essential prior to collecting data to establish an agreed FNC.

What is a File Name?

File names are the names that are listed in the file directory and that team members give to new files when they are saved for the first time.

What are the benefits of using a file naming convention?

Naming files consistently, logically and in a predictable manner will prevent against unorganised files, misplaced or lost data. It could also prevent possible backlogs or project delays. A file naming convention will ensure files are:

• Easier to process - All team members won’t have to over think the file naming process
• Easier to facilitate access, retrieval and storage of files
• Easier to browse through files saving time and effort
• Harder to lose!
• Having logical and known naming conventions in place can also help you with version control (See Version Control for more information).
• Check for obsolete or duplicate records

Checklist

The University of Edinburgh has a comprehensive and easy to follow list (with examples and explanations) of 13 Rules for file naming conventions

Coming up with a plan for your team on how to name files.

Former PhD student and subsequent founder of the Figshare platform, Mark Hahnel, typified a common challenge: ‘During my PhD I was never good at managing my research data. I had so many different file names for my data that I always struggled to find the correct file quickly and easily when it was requested. My former PI was so horrified upon seeing the state of my data organisation that she held an emergency lab book meeting with the rest of my group when l was leaving’. - Research Information, April/May 2014

Your research team should agree on the following elements of a file name prior to data collection:

• Vocabulary - choose a standard vocabulary for file names, so that everyone uses a common language
• Punctuation - decide when to use punctuation symbols, capitals and hyphens
• Dates - agree on a logical use of dates so that they display chronologically i.e. YYYY-MM-DD
• Order - confirm which element should go first, so that files on the same theme are listed together and can therefore be found easily
• Numbers - specify the amount of digits that will be used in numbering so that files are listed numerically e.g. 01, 002, etc.

As previously suggested, consistent and meaningful naming of files and folders can make everyone’s life easier. See this example below:

.language-python: YYYYMMDD_SiteA_SensorB.CSV Date Location Sensor

Which when applied, would look like this below

20150621_Yaouk_Humidity.CSV

Naming conventions - Beginner

Let’s look at some naming convention for your data files and documents. Any dates are best stored with YYYY-MM-DD. Try to avoid spaces in your file names

Intermediate

Make sure you follow the 13 Rules for file naming conventions

Naming conventions - Advanced

Do you have a policy in your team around naming conventions? If not, this is a great way of getting everyone on the same page.

Internal Resources

• Talk to your Research Support Services librarian.

External Resources

• Naming things by Jenny Bryan
• File naming and folder conventions by CESSDA ERIC
• The University of Edinburgh has a comprehensive yet easy to follow list (with examples and explanations) of 13 Rules for file naming conventions https://www.ed.ac.uk/records-management/guidance/records/practical-guidance/naming-conventions
• Australian National Data Services (ANDS). (2018). ANDS Guide: File wrangling

Key Points

• A File Naming Convention is a framework for naming your files in a way that describes what files contain and how they relate to other files.