Use Rails’ naming conventions for dates & times

Rails includes the default managed timestamps updated_at and created_at for ActiveRecord models.

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However, on many applications, diving into a schema.rb or migration often reveals something_date as a field name on a model.

Instead of…

…including the words date or time in your database columns:

class NaughtyMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.1]
  add_column :users, :logged_in_date, :datetime
  add_column :users, :logged_out_time, :date
end

Use…

…the suffix at for times and on for dates.

class AwesomeMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.1]
  add_column :users, :logged_in_at, :datetime
  add_column :users, :logged_out_on, :date
end

But why?

Including the word time or date in the variable name is redundant and adds to the visual noise of the code. You don’t say first_name_string, do you?

Given Rails’ conventions, something like a due_on field lets you know to expect a date. You give instant feedback to anyone reading your code about the expected data stored in the database.

I might allow myself the occasional _until if it makes the variable easier to read.

For me, the naming constraint also makes me think harder about the right name.

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