I know this is a common convention, but what does the "k" in variable names signify? (i.e. kMaxImageViewSize) I looked in the Apple documentation on Variable names and found no mention of it.
Thanks for answering
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71
That's a general programming notation not specific to Objective-C (i.e. Hungarian Notation) and the "k" stands for "constant".
Marc Novakowski
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4I prefer my spelling of it, but of course your answer is just as correct. :-) – C. K. Young Jan 23 '09 at 06:54
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Does Apple still prefix it's constants with 'k'? – Yogurt Dec 26 '12 at 23:19
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Then why use a hungarian notation at all? (Or better "Why did they use it at THAT time?") – Binarian Aug 29 '13 at 11:09
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For the record, "Hungarian Notation" has no concept of a prefix that means "constant". – jorgbrown Oct 23 '17 at 09:18
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I would presume it means "konstant". :-)
C. K. Young
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17“Koeffizient” is the German word for “coefficient“ i.e. a multiplication factor, whereas “Konstante” means the noun “constant“, which would here be appropriate. As the prefix “k” comes from the Hungarian notation, i would rather believe that it is derived from the Hungarian noun “konstans”, which also means “constant”. – Michael Manner Aug 22 '12 at 06:11
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Sorry @michael-manner, "k" does not come from Hungarian. Look at the wikipedia entry, or the MSDN article; there is no mention of a "k" prefix and the only mention of anything special for constants is mentioned in passing when MSDN notes "Even if we know that it is a constant (because it is spelled all caps, for example), there might be several color-related types." – jorgbrown Oct 23 '17 at 09:22
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Now we historians need to find out the back story of the mysterious `k` used by ancestors since dozens of years ago. – jackxujh Dec 09 '19 at 01:49