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single word requests - Is there a hypernym for "order confirmation", "quotation" and "invoice"?


Is there an abstraction for the following three words?



  • Order confirmation

  • Quotation

  • Invoice


I want to create a base class for them but I can't find a word that describes all three.



Answer



With respect, you don't actually want a synonym, you want an abstraction that encompasses the general case. You say as much yourself when you talk about a "base class".


So why not look at what is common in these three things?


Each of them is a communication of information about an order, between two or more parties. Each of them will have a date, a sender, an order reference, and one or more recipients.


Sounds awfully like we are talking about a letter. Or more generally, a communication. Or maybe correspondence.


As a programmer, I'd probably go for something like order-correspondence. Then, when I realise that I also need a class for receipt I've got a ready-made base class.


On the other hand, given such a problem, I'd probably go back to the design board and have a good think about what data I have to deal with, and for what purposes, and hope that having a serious think about the design would lead me naturally to the identification of good entity names.


In other words, if the names aren't obvious, the design probably needs more thought.


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