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In Python, if a name is intended to be "private", it is prefixed by one or two underscores. Private variables are enforced in Python only by convention. Names can also be suffixed with an underscore to prevent conflict with Python keywords. Prefixing with double underscores changes behaviour in classes with regard to name mangling.
It is a commonly used naming convention in computing, for example for variable and subroutine names, and for filenames. One study has found that readers can recognize snake case values more quickly than camel case. However, "subjects were trained mainly in the underscore style", so the possibility of bias cannot be eliminated. [1]
A variable named with just an underscore often has special meaning. $_ or _ is the previous command or result in many interactive shells , such as those of Python , Ruby , and Perl . In Perl , @_ is a special array variable that holds the arguments to a function .
Python's runtime does not restrict access to such attributes, the mangling only prevents name collisions if a derived class defines an attribute with the same name. On encountering name mangled attributes, Python transforms these names by prepending a single underscore and the name of the enclosing class, for example: >>>
Python sets are very much like mathematical sets, and support operations like set intersection and union. Python also features a frozenset class for immutable sets, see Collection types. Dictionaries (class dict) are mutable mappings tying keys and corresponding values. Python has special syntax to create dictionaries ({key: value})
In other languages (like Python) this is enforced only by convention (for example, private methods may have names that start with an underscore). In C#, Swift & Kotlin languages, internal keyword permits access only to files present in the same assembly, package, or module as that of the class.
C and C++ are notable in this respect: C99 reserves identifiers that start with two underscores or an underscore followed by an uppercase letter, and further reserves identifiers that start with a single underscore (in the ordinary and tag spaces) for use in file scope; [1] with C++03 further reserves identifiers that contain a double ...
Which character sequences constitute identifiers depends on the lexical grammar of the language. A common rule is alphanumeric sequences, with underscore also allowed (in some languages, _ is not allowed), and with the condition that it can not begin with a numerical digit (to simplify lexing by avoiding confusing with integer literals) – so foo, foo1, foo_bar, _foo are allowed, but 1foo is ...