Kelli Okuly
PT1420
Unit 2 Research Assignment
12-5-2014

Variable naming conventions vary from program to program. In Visual Basic the variable must begin with a letter and you cannot use a space, period (.), or the characters !, @, &, $, # in the name. Visual Basic variable names must be under 255 characters long. You shouldn't use any names that are the same as the functions, statements, and methods in Visual Basic. You end up shadowing the same keywords in the language. To use a basic language function, statement, or method that conflicts with an assigned name, you must explicitly identify it. Precede the fundamental function, statement, or method name with the name of the associated type library. For example, if you have a variable called “Left”, you can only use the “Left” function using “VBA.Left”.
In Python, variables must begin with a letter or underscore (_). Other characters can be letters, numbers, or the underscore. Python variables are case sensitive and can be any length, within reason. There are several keywords in Python that are reserved for other functions and cannot be used as variables. For example; print, def, from, not, and return.
Variables in Java are referred to as Identifiers. In Java the variable must begin with a letter, an underscore, or a dollar sign ($) although a letter is typically what is used. The other characters may be letters or numbers, no spaces or special characters are allowed. Java identifiers can be any length within reason. These variables are case sensitive, using all uppercase letters are primarily used to identify constant variables. Like Python, there are certain keywords or reserved words that cannot be used as a variable name. Examples of these keywords are assert, break, case, default, and final.
There are three similarities between naming conventions in Visual Basic, Python, and Java. First