Commonly-used names in the Python standard library

[Chris Angelico]

In working on a proposal that might result in the creation of a new
keyword, I needed to ascertain what names were used extensively in
existing Python code. Out of random curiosity, I asked my script what
names were the most commonly used. The script responded with 21854
names and a total of 297164 references, averaging 13-14 refs per name.

A good number of names are referenced just once - set and never
referenced. They're there for applications to use. That takes out 6217
names. But I'm more interested in the ones that see a lot of use.

By far the most common name is 'self', for obvious reasons; after
that, it's a fairly steady drop-off. The most popular names in the
standard library are... *drumroll*

45298 - self
3750 - os
3744 - name
3166 - i
3140 - s
2685 - value
2648 - a
2451 - len
2348 - c
2331 - sys
2255 - b
2238 - line
2132 - print
2131 - x

Few surprises there. The os and sys modules are used extensively, and
short variable names are reused frequently. To the print-detractors:
That's two thousand uses in the standard library, more than any other
single function bar 'len'! (And by the way, this is ignoring any file
with /test/ in the name.)

I find the pairing of 'name' and 'value' interesting. There are 40%
more names than values in Python, apparently. And on that bombshell,
as they say on Top Gear, it's time to end!

ChrisA