What is the German equivalent of foo, bar, baz?

Question

The English words foo, bar and baz are often used as placeholder nonsense names in programming. In French, "toto, titi, tata, tutu" are common.

Which words are used for this purpose in German code?

To clarify: Although company-local traditions are interesting, that's not what I'm asking about.

This reminds me of an April-Fools joke, where Microsoft introduces G# (German Sharp), a C# implementation with German keywords ;) — OregonGhost, May 27 '11 at 11:14
Better an April-Fools joke than the foolish German VBA they really created. — bernd_k, May 27 '11 at 13:03
@bernd_k: Yes, and it's still in Excel. Did they do this for other languages as well? ;) — OregonGhost, May 27 '11 at 13:14
@oregonGhost Tja und dann gibt es noch viele deutsche Übersetzungen von guten Computerbüchern, wo die automatische Übersetzung große Teile der Programmbeispiele entstellt hat. — bernd_k, May 27 '11 at 13:24
Mein Vorschlag für eine (mehr oder weniger) akkurate Übersetzung wäre Zeug, Kneipe und Bartholomäus. ;-) — deceze, May 27 '11 at 14:09
@deceze: Das erinnert mich an eine Situation vor ein paar Monaten. Hatte mit einem Kollegen für einen Kunden eine Software mehr oder weniger fertig. Er hatte mir dann noch per IM eine Codezeile geschickt, die ungefähr aussah wie ... Get(b). Nun macht mein Instant-Messenger aus (b) natürlich ein Bierglas... Den Screenshot davon haben wir dem Kunden dann in der Mitteilung, dass alle Fehler behoben seien und offenbar auch der Code selbst dieser Meinung sei, mitgeschickt ;) — OregonGhost, May 27 '11 at 21:52
Random Wikipedia connection: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntaktische_Variable — Debilski, Jun 12 '11 at 02:00
@OregonGhost : no, but worse: with different syntactic delimiters for parameters and cell addressing. — ogerard, Jun 21 '11 at 19:44
For me, wrgl, xrgl, zrgl, and the like are international enough to use them in any language. :) — sbi, Nov 22 '11 at 14:37

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '11 at 10:28

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Since programming is often deeply connected with the English language, I guess many if not most people use foo, bar, etc. too.

However there is of course blub and blubber or at my company blurbs, blurbsi, blubberhupps and the like are hot. It's sort of a local meme.

answered May 27 '11 at 10:28

musiKk

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Yeah, foo/bar is fine. I often use bla and blub as well. Or even blablabla etc. :P – poke May 27 '11 at 10:54
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+1 for blubberhupps. – OregonGhost May 27 '11 at 10:55
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user of bla(bla) and blub(b) here, too! – ladybug May 27 '11 at 11:00
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+1 I also use foo and bar, and sometimes bla and blubb. – mru Jun 12 '11 at 09:16
"many, if not most": nope. foo and bar are a red flag for me when reviewing and never get a pass. Because. :) – hiergiltdiestfu Aug 10 '15 at 12:34

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered May 27 '11 at 10:33

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You could go with dings–bums, dingens–kirchens, bla–blubb–blafasel. But if we are talking about programming context, then I wager the English placeholders foo and bar are the most popular by far.

answered May 27 '11 at 10:33

RegDwight

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+1 for dingsbums, great word :) – Sebastian Jun 02 '11 at 11:35
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I use "bla" and "blubb", too. Additionally "laber", which can be extended to "laber-sülz", e.g. for testing Umlaut capabilities. – Landei Mar 02 '12 at 19:08

OregonGhost · Answer 3 · 2011-05-27T10:55:58.213

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Bla is sometimes used. And Blub if you need a second. But since the actual code language is typically English, not German, you can use the same as in English. In my company, however, you'll find a suspicious amount of bunny in code... Everybody likes bunnies.

I hate the use of foo, bar, baz, by the way. Better think of real examples. Now that I think about it, I rarely encountered German examples with foo, bar and baz. May be coincedence though.

edited May 27 '11 at 10:55

answered May 27 '11 at 10:48

OregonGhost

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Yes, when reading code (and trying to understand it), usage of foo doesn't really help. – Paŭlo Ebermann Jun 05 '11 at 21:54

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 27 '11 at 11:07

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All German Programmers I know use foo / bar. So do I, most of the time, but my own private variation is:

Nase, Hase, Vase, Blase (etc.)

answered May 27 '11 at 11:07

Sean Patrick Floyd

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+1: You got me at Hase. – OregonGhost May 27 '11 at 21:48
Das ist gut, werde ich in Zukunft auch verwenden. :-) – Steffen Roller Mar 27 '13 at 22:21

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered May 27 '11 at 12:55

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A friend has told me that his professor extensively used “wilde” (= “wild”) and “wutz” (= diminutive of “boar”, “pig”) as metasyntactic variables. To this day, these are my favourites.

answered May 27 '11 at 12:55

Konrad Rudolph

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Wilde Wutz? Oo +1 – OregonGhost May 27 '11 at 13:15
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+1, although Wutz is not a diminutive, but rather a word of its own right ;) – Jan Apr 01 '15 at 16:02

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered May 27 '11 at 11:11

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This is not representative, but my first variable of choice is always "willi", followed by "otto" and then "franz"

answered May 27 '11 at 11:11

teylyn

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 11 '11 at 23:05

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Ich nehm eene, meene, miste. Kommt glaub ich aus der Augsburger Puppenkiste. "Eene, meene, miste, es rappelt in der Kiste ...". Bedeutet, soweit ich weiß, in etwa das gleiche wie foo bar baz. :-)

answered Jun 11 '11 at 23:05

Lumi

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Ne, das "eene meene miste" entstammt der "Rappelkiste", einer ZDF-Kleinkindersendung aus den 70er Jahren im Kielwasser der Sesamstraße, siehe http://www.fernsehserien.de/index.php?serie=555. – Ray Nov 16 '11 at 16:31

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Oct 19 '12 at 22:58

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Muh, lala and bum, of course.

edited Oct 19 '12 at 22:58

RegDwight

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answered Nov 16 '11 at 11:28

fzwo

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 27 '11 at 10:58

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I once worked on a project where the temporary or test variables were always called Hugo. Don't know though if anyone else uses it.

answered May 27 '11 at 10:58

Jan

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I know KarlHugo, paired with Klarabella. Don't ask. – OregonGhost May 27 '11 at 11:13
@OregonGhost: Mikki kommt mal her? – ogerard Jun 21 '11 at 19:41
@ogerard: Maybe I misunderstand you, but shouldn't Klarabella be paired with Rudi Ross in that case, since it's Klarabella Kuh? ;) – OregonGhost Jun 21 '11 at 19:42
Wahrscheinlich waren die Variablen alle für den Hugo. :-) – celtschk Oct 21 '12 at 12:49

What is the German equivalent of foo, bar, baz?

9 Answers9