Naming of overloaded methods - singular or plural? [closed]

Question

This question is about your opinions and/or existing conventions.

Let's say I have an object Basket that store various items in some private property (Basket._items). Now, I want to have a couple of methods for adding, removing and getting items.

Each method can take either a single item or a list of items as an argument, or with no arguments, in the case of removing and getting, may remove or return all items.

How do you think I should name my methods?

addItem or addItems
removeItem or removeItems
getItem or getItems

(They don't all have to be the same form; for instance, maybe only the last one should be plural.)

Answer 1

If the methods add, get and remove multiple items, I'd use a plural. I think it's more obvious that addItems can add one item than addItem can add multiple items.

In any case, good documentation is your ally. :-)

Answer 2

Why do you have to use overloading here? I would use both names; the plural for the list, and the singular for the element. Write 6 methods, and be clear about whether you expect an array or element for each.

Also, can a bucket hold anything else? If not, I would prefer the simpler "add", "remove", "list", and "get".