What's the best practice for field API prefixes? (To prefix or not to prefix, that is the question)

Question

I'm implementing a giant list of fields, instances, bundles, et cetera in a custom site specific module.

In progress, I see that the core Tags vocabulary has a field_ machine name prefix, and none of my custom vocabularies have this prefix. I've known that creating fields through the Drupal GUI also prefixes fields with field_.

In my previous experience working with prefixed fields, this has always seemed too verbose.

Is prefixing Field API fields with _field a best practice for a reason I haven't come across yet?

Answer 1

I prefix my custom fields always with the name of my module, which, I think, is a good practice, so that I know which module provides this field. And also I think this is the same reason Drupal Field UI adds the field_ prefix since the fields are created by the Field module in this case.

Answer 2

In our team we make the following naming.

field_NAME_OF_PROJECT_NAME_OF_MODULE_FIELD_NAME

Example: Project: Rockstar Module: Counter Field Name: id

Final:field_rs_counter_id Keep in mind those are saved in the database as field_data_field_rs_counter_id, and I experienced character limit.

Regards