DataShare: ISU's Open Research Data Repository

File Names

Using consistent, straight forward, and well thought out file names will help you and others make sense of your files.

File names should have meaning

Files names are the fastest way for to identify what is inside a file and how it differs from similar files. You should name your files based on important elements of your project such as:

• Specimen or sample designation
• Dates and times
• Location or coordinates
• Testing or environmental conditions or variables
• File version number
• Other relevant information

You can combine elements as needed in to create a file naming convention that you can deploy during the entire project. An explanation of what each element of the file name means should be documented. One easy way to do this is to create a readme text file in the project's top folder.

Sorting

Consider how you want to track the files (i.e. chronologically, by location, by sample, etc.). This is the element that should be at the beginning of your file name as it will effect how the computer sorts and displays files.

Standards

Don't reinvent the wheel. Use existing standards whenever possible! This will make it easier for others to understand the file names.

For example, there is a standard that defines how dates and times should be recorded: ISO 8601. Using this standard eliminates common points of confusion such as the difference between US and European dates which swap the order of day and month.

Avoid special characters

Just because you can use something doesn't mean you should. There are two reasons to avoid special characters, punctuation marks, and symbols in filenames:

1. Special characters and punctuation marks are often reserved characters for computer operating systems.This means that the character is used in a very specififc way by the operating system and using it in a file name will cause errors. 
2. Not all operating systems and programs support the same characters. A common example is how the modern Mac OS (9 and after) support a number of special characters (/ \ : * ? < > |) that are not supported by Windows.

Limit the use of periods

Periods (.) should only be used to separate the file name from the file extension. Do not use periods to separate different elements of a file name, use a dash (-) or an underscore (_) instead.

The same rule applies for multiple periods (i.e. .. and ...). Don't do it!

Avoid spaces

A file naming best practice is to avoid spaces in file names. Spaces are not supported by all operating systems or by command line applications. A space in a filename can cause errors when loading a file or when transferring files between computers. Common replacements for spaces in a filenames are dashes (-) or underscores (_). Alternatively you can also use a technique called camelCase which uses letter case to separate name elements. However, if you need to search for a file by name, or by part of it's name, then spaces are more likely to work than dashes, underscores, and camelCase.

More information

Joseph Scott's "Things That Shouldn’t Be in File Names for $1,000 Alex." is a good summary of file naming practices to avoid.