Should I use the same name for a member variable and a function parameter in C++?

Question

I am wondering if it is a good practice to use the same name for both a member variable and a function parameter in C++.

I come from a Java backgro

Answer 1

This is more a style issue than anything else. Most of the time, there's no issue: state is a very poor name for a variable or a value, as variables and values should be qualified nouns, e.g.:

void setState( PlayerState* newState )
{
    currentState = newState;
}

In theory, anyway. In practice, I've found it useful to use prefixes, along the lines of:

class Player
{
    PlayerState* myState;
public:
    void setState( PlayerState* newState )
    {
        myState = newState;
    }
};

When reading the code, if the name starts with my, it's clearly a member variable (and if it starts with our, it's a static member variable).

Note too that in the constructor, you can do things like:

Player::Player( PlayerState* state )
    : state( state )
{
}

I'm not sure what this does for readability, however:

Player::Player( PlayerState* initialState )
    : myState( initialState )
{
}

looks a lot clearer (but for simple data holders, the distinction might not be so significant).