When to use 種別 and when to use 区分 when programming

Question

I am having trouble when naming a variable, deciding if I should use ABC種別 or ABC区分. I have been reading a lot of software specifications and the Japanese description usually uses 種別 and 区分 to specify a type or a class.

When do you use 種別 and when do you use 区分? For example, for a device, would you use 種別 or 区分 to differentiate the type here? Is this just a preference?

Added based on the context comments (2011/12/12): I was referring to customer types. I do ask my colleague, why they use 区分、種別 or even 種類 pertaining to the same variable but they just say they are the same. Example of usage that I see, for example column names of database tables (Customer=>TOKUI_KUBUN,TOKUI_SHUBETSU) or (User=>USER_KUBUN,USER_SHUBETSU). I do think they are essentially the same with subtle difference. It just is annoying which one is the more appropriate one especially if you want to make a naming convention.

Answer 1

I'm a programmer at a Japanese company, and all of our variable names are named in English. Sometimes it's misspelled or unclear English, but it's English nonetheless. It's just the standard. Heck, most programming languages don't even support non-ASCII variable names, and romaji variable names are unwieldy and unnecessary. Of course, it all comes down to the style used at your particular organization, and variable naming convention can really run the gamut.

That being said, to get to your core question (if you absolutely have to give your variables Japanese names), I would probably go with 種類 for a general sort of type (as in the phrase "a type of customer"), タイプ for a programming data type (as in "the integer type") and maybe 種別 or カテゴリー for a classification or category or something.

Also, I would never use "tokui" for "customer;" I'm not even sure how you got that. I usually see 顧客 or お客様. Or sometimes even カスタマー. But "tokui" doesn't mean that.

Hope this answer helps! To summarize, go with English for the variable names and comment in Japanese :)