{"id":16602,"date":"2012-08-03T10:12:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T08:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=16602"},"modified":"2012-08-03T10:14:24","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T08:14:24","slug":"metasyntactic-variable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/03\/metasyntactic-variable\/","title":{"rendered":"Metasyntactic variable"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metasyntactic_variable\">Metasyntactic variable<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A &#8220;standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples&#8221; often used in the United States is: foo, bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred,\u00a0plugh,\u00a0xyzzy, thud.\u00a0The word\u00a0<em>foo<\/em>\u00a0occurs in over 330\u00a0RFCs\u00a0and\u00a0<em>bar<\/em>\u00a0occurs in over 290.\u00a0<em>[&#8230;]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Due to English being the foundation-language, or\u00a0lingua franca, of most computer programming languages these variables are also commonly seen even in programs and examples of programs written for other spoken-language audiences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p>Metasyntactic variable A &#8220;standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples&#8221; often used in the United States is: foo, bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred,\u00a0plugh,\u00a0xyzzy, thud.\u00a0The word\u00a0foo\u00a0occurs in over 330\u00a0RFCs\u00a0and\u00a0bar\u00a0occurs in over 290.\u00a0[&#8230;] Due to English being the foundation-language, or\u00a0lingua franca, of most computer programming languages these variables are also commonly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/03\/metasyntactic-variable\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Metasyntactic variable<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,18,62],"tags":[3069,2962],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-16602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-general","category-programming","category-technology","tag-best-practices","tag-terminology","post_format-post-format-link"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.8 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Metasyntactic variable A &quot;standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples&quot; often used in the United States is: foo, bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud. 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having its roots in Perl, and Perl being such a influence in the world of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12138,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/12\/php-variables-strings-and-curly-braces\/","url_meta":{"origin":16602,"position":1},"title":"PHP variables, strings, and curly braces","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"February 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last couple of days we had a number arguments at work about what is the best way to surround a complex PHP variable inside a double-quoted string. \u00a0More specifically, should the sigil ($, dollar sign) be on the inside of the braces or on the outside. \u00a0Consider an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8266,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/11\/27\/on-variable-naming-conventions\/","url_meta":{"origin":16602,"position":2},"title":"On variable naming conventions","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Naming variables (that includes functions) is one of the most flamed subjects in the computer programming world. Some people say you should use underscore (_) to separate words in the multiword names, like this_is_my_variable. Others believe that separation should be done by capitalizatioon like thisIsMyVariable. Agreeing on what should come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18605,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/13\/beautifying-phps-json_encode-output\/","url_meta":{"origin":16602,"position":3},"title":"Beautifying PHP&#8217;s json_encode() output","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"September 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been working a bit more with PHP and JSON recently and one of the things that annoyed me quite a bit was the single line output of the json_encode() function. \u00a0Here is an example: Poorly readable result (imagine having larger, more complex data structures like nested arrays): Apparently, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27279,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2017\/01\/30\/sharing-constants-between-php-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":16602,"position":4},"title":"Sharing constants between PHP classes","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"January 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When writing larger applications, it is often useful to have some constants defined, which can then be shared between different parts of the application. \u00a0There are several ways to do this, and there is no real rocket science here. However, the question is: what's the best way to do so?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9196,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2005\/07\/05\/profiling-perl\/","url_meta":{"origin":16602,"position":5},"title":"Profiling perl","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"July 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"After I've complained on #perl channel that dprofpp (perl profiler) dies on me, I received a number of suggestions on how to profile the code without using dprofpp. Ideas ranged from elemetary insertion of 'print \"Started\", time,\"\\n\"' to all sorts of dynamic subroutine overloading. 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