Is it bad practice to use temporary variables to avoid typing?

coding-style, language-agnostic

Solution

This example is perfectly fine, since you are using it in functions/methods.

The variable will be unset right after the method/function ends - so there's not much of a memory leak or what.

Also by doing this, you "sort of" implemented DRY - don't repeat yourself.

Why write so many `$this->currentDatabase` when you can write `$db`. And what if you have to change `$this->currentDatabase` to some other values?

Problem

I sometimes use temporary variables to shorten the identifiers: ``` private function doSomething() { $db = $this->currentDatabase; $db->callMethod1(); $db->callMethod2(); $db->callMethod3(); $db->... } ``` Although this is a PHP example, I'm asking in general: Is this bad practice? Are there any drawbacks?

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