Metasyntactic variable

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The phrase metasyntactic variable (pronounced /ˌmɛtəsɪnˈtæktɪk ˈvɛəriəbl/) is a neologism that is used in some programmer communities to describe a placeholder name or an alias term commonly used to denote the subject matter under discussion or an arbitrary member of a class of things under discussion. The term originates from computer programming and other technical contexts, and is commonly used in examples by hackers and programmers. The use of a metasyntactic variable is helpful in freeing a programmer from creating a logically named variable, although the invented term may also become sufficiently popular and enter the language as a neologism. For example, in Terry Pratchett's book Men at Arms, the dog Gaspode says, "Clothing has never been what you might call a thingy of dog wossname.", and then adds, "Two metasyntactic variables there. Sorry.". The word foo is the principal example.^[1]

Any word can be used as a metasyntactic variable, but "nonsense words" are commonly used. The same concept is employed in other fields where it is expressed by terms such as schematic variable (see logical form).

Contents 1 Explanation of the concept 1.1 Dissecting the phrase 1.2 Mathematical analogy 2 Words commonly used as metasyntactic variables 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Explanation of the concept

[edit] Dissecting the phrase

• 'Meta' means providing information about, or transcending.
• 'Syntax' means the grammatical arrangement of words or the grammatical rules of a programming language.
• 'Variable' means something that can assume a value, or something likely to vary.

So we have a word that

transcends grammar and can assume a value

or one that

is more comprehensive than grammatical arrangement and is likely to vary.

[edit] Mathematical analogy

A metasyntactic variable is a word that is a variable for other words, just as in algebra letters are used as variables for numbers.^[1]

[edit] Words commonly used as metasyntactic variables

A "standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples" is: foo, bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud.^[1] The word foo occurs in over 330 RFCs and bar occurs in over 290.^[2]

Foo is used in one section of a tutorial on the C programming language by Brian W. Kernighan. Here, he illustrates the use of the extern declaration:^[3]

Second, at the beginning of any file
that contains functions needing a variable whose definition is in some other file,
put in an extern declaration, outside of any function:

       extern  int     foo;

       f1( ) { ... }
          etc.

Wibble, wobble, wubble and flob are often used in the UK^[4].

[edit] See also

• Placeholder name
• Free variables and bound variables
• gadget
• widget
• Hello World
• Lorem Ipsum
• Fnord
• Alice and Bob
• John Doe

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} RFC 3092 (rfc3092) - Etymology of "Foo"
2. ^ http://www.rfc-editor.org/download.html
3. ^ Brian W. Kernighan: Programming in C: A Tutorial
4. ^ wibble. (n.d.). Jargon File 4.2.0. Retrieved March 23, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wibble

[edit] External links

• Definition of metasyntactic variable, with examples.
• Examples of metasyntactic variables used in Commonwealth Hackish, such as wombat.
• Variable "foo" and Other Programming Oddities